1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



479 



Thou Shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. — Mark 

 12; 31. 



These are the things that ve shall do : Speak ye 

 every man the truth to his neighbor ; execute the judg- 

 ment of truth and peace in your gates ; and let none 

 of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neigh- 

 bor ; and love no false oath ; for all these are things 

 that I hate, saith the L,ord.— Zech. 8: IG, 17. 



You will notice from my texts that I am to 

 talk about " neighbors " this time, rather than 

 " our homes ; " and the matter has come up 

 especially as I am starting a new home — that 

 is, a new summer home — among new people. 

 You have probaVjly all heard the story of the 

 hotel-keeper. I think he must have been a 

 Yankee as well as a philosopher, for he was 

 much in the habit of getting acquainted with 

 all his guests. Well, a man came along with 

 his teams and family to stop with him over 

 night. He was moving to a new locality. 

 He gave, as a reason, that he had always been 

 unfortunately located among the meanest set 

 of neighbors to be found on the face of the 

 earth, and therefore he was going to try to 

 find a better place. Our philosophical host 

 informed the man, however, that he would 

 find exactly the same kind of neighbors 

 around his new home that he had left behind. 

 There was no difference. Next day another 

 mover came along, who explained in his talk 

 that certain circumstances made it advisable 

 for him to leave his old home, but he greatly 

 regretted being obliged to leave, because his 

 neighbors had always been so exceedingly 

 kind, fair, 2iuA. friendly. He said it almost 

 broke his heart to think about breaking the 

 ties that bound him to each and all. Well, 

 our wise friend replied to this man much as 

 he did to the other, saying something like 

 this : " My good friend, I am happy to tell 

 you that you will find just as good neighbors 

 where you are going as you have left behind. 

 You need not feel troubled nor worried." 



What a wonderful truth this story illustrates 

 — that is, if it indeed be true, and I rather 

 suspect it is! Can it be true that it is not so 

 much what the people are as what we make 

 them ? or, in other words, the state of your 

 own heart has more to do with the neighbor- 

 hood than any thing else. I suspect this ho- 

 tel-keeper must have been a Christian, al- 

 though the story did not say so. He had dis- 

 covered the real philosopher'' s stone, the source 

 of joy and peace and happiness in this world 

 of ours. 



T thought of this little story when I manag- 

 ed to secure a dozen days of absence from 

 business during the busy fore part of May. 

 In fact, I set foot in Leelanaw Co., Mich., on 

 the first day of May, and I remained there 

 eight days, Sunday included. I thought of 

 the neighbors, especially as I wanted to go 

 around among them and employ men with 

 their teams to help me during my brief stay, 

 and start a very humble home out in the 

 woods. Yes, I knelt and prayed for these 



neighbors, even before I had seen them. I do 

 not think they will feel hurt if I call them by 

 name ; for, although I am going to give you a 

 picture of a special locality, I have prayed 

 that God shall give me grace and wisdom not 

 to find too much fault, even if I touch upon 

 the weaknesses and frailties of average hu- 

 manity. 



The first day we had only two men and a 

 team, not counting myself. We made quite a 

 clearing by hauling away the logs that cum- 

 bered the ground three or four deep in some 

 places. The timber had been previously cut 

 down, and was mostly in lengths so that a 

 team could move it. The next day we were 

 to grub, get out stumps, and plow. I had 

 made arrangements to have several good men, 

 some boys, and a team. A man living very 

 near me had promised a team, or at least I 

 supposed he had. He said if he could not ar- 

 range to go himself with his team and plow 

 he would get his brother-in-law, and that I 

 could depend on having one or the other — at 

 least so I understood it. But when I was on 

 the ground in the morning, I waited and wait- 

 ed for the men, boys, and team to show up. 

 For a good while (so it seemed to me) nobody 

 was visible. Finally the man who lived fur- 

 thest away came with his ax. After waiting till 

 the forenoon was pretty well spent I put off 

 on foot to hunt up my helpers. I found the 

 man with the team, who had promised so fair- 

 ly, plowing his own field- I asked him why 

 he was not on hand as he agreed. But he did 

 not remember that he had made any positive 

 promise. He said he was working for Mr. 

 Oberlin, and must get in the oats. When I 

 asked about his brother-in-law he said the 

 boat had come in at the dock, and they all 

 had to load it up. I remonstrated, and ex- 

 plained the circumstances. I offered to pay 

 him extra if he would drop his work there 

 and come and help me. But he said he could 

 not do that at any price. He was at work for 

 Mr. Oberlin, and Mr. O. was a very particular 

 man. 



" But, friend Burdo, I saw Mr. Oberlin last 

 evening, and arranged to have the lumber de- 

 livered at my place, and he said they would 

 furnish me any thing I wanted. He said that 

 was their business, and he was glad to help 

 me locate in the neighborhood. Now, Mr. B. 

 I will stand between you and Mr. Oberlin. I 

 know by the talk I had with him he will not 

 charge you very heavy damages for stopping 

 and helping me for half a day." 



But I could not move him. He reasoned 

 like this : 



"Mr. Root, suppose I should hire out to 

 work for you, and somebody else should come 

 along, and I should go off and work for him. 

 No, I can not work for you this afternoon, 

 not if you were to give me $25, unless you 

 first see Mr. Oberlin and get permission for 

 me to stop putting in oats." 



Now, this is good square common sense ; 

 but why did not my " neighbor" apply the 

 same common sense to our talk the evening 

 before? I expostulated, on the ground that 

 Mr. Oberlin was three miles away, and no tel- 

 ephone wire. I told him I could get permis- 



