80 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



tage, friend A. spoke of what I had written 

 in regard to finding that spring of water, of 

 mv talk about hydraulic rams, and the wind- 

 mill, and of a pet project of his own to 

 bring that babbling brook to his house, just 

 above us ; and then I saw that Gleanings 

 had been read*, and my investigations had 

 been eagerly followed by many I did not 

 then know, and in homes I at the time had 

 mi knowledge of. Later, when I heard 

 how the good mother had taken these little 

 ones to Sunday-school at the schoolhouse, 

 three miles away, even when a California 

 lion glared at them through the bushes on 

 their way home, I remembered too of the 

 times when I, in my poor way, had tried to 

 tell of the " living water," " springing up 

 into everlasting life," and that, in all prob- 

 ability, the dear ones in this home too had 

 been interested, and may be had been 

 helped in that way. Prominently on the 

 neat little stand on which I write is a little 

 Bible, evidently placed there by the same 

 hand that fixed the rest of the room so trim 

 and neat, feeling sure that Mr. Root would 

 want it. May God be praised for this act. 

 I do want it ; I want it while I live, and I 

 want it when I die. I want it always near 

 me. Dear reader, I haven't room to tell 

 you of all these homes ; but this one is a 

 sample of most of them, and I hope I may 

 never forget to pray for the dear brothers 

 and sisters T have found here in California. 

 During the day I visited the Sespe Apiary, 

 illustrated in tlie A B C book. Friend Wil- 

 kin now no longer owns it, but it has been 

 turned over to a bright muscular young Ca- 

 nadian, who not only gives it excellent care, 

 but cares for friend W.'s youngest daughter 

 also, and the two handsome children God 

 has given them. Young Mclntyre has the 

 best kept apiary and honey-house I have so 

 far found in California. He brings in the 

 combs to extract on a two-wheeled cart. 

 The cart contains two boxes for holding the 

 combs with cloth covers to keep out robbers. 

 The cloth is fastened to the box at one 

 edge, and a stick i-; fastened to the other 

 edge, heavy enough to keep the wind from 

 blowing it away. I will describe his can for 

 holding the cappings*at some future time, 

 with suitable engravings. As I passed 

 through Santa Paula, Rufus Touchton 

 handed me a box of beautiful large straw- 

 berries. All the bee-friends seem to know 

 of my interest in strawberries, and I was a 

 good deal "touched'' by the compliment 

 and courtesy. 



AN OPTICAL ILLUSION. 



When you are driving on a level road that 

 runs straight toward a range of mountains, 

 when about a mile away from the moun- 

 tains you will feel sure you are going down 

 hill. Even when going up hill toward the 

 mountains I was so sure it was down that I 

 became almost tried with my friends when 

 they declared it was not down. In fact, I 

 could not believe it until we came to a 

 stream of water, and I was then startled to 



* The most prominent thing in friend Arundel's 

 library is volumes of Glean incs. neat ly bound, 

 and lettered on the back in home-made binding: and 

 lettering. 



find it running up hill ! If you turn about, 

 however, and look behind you, every thing 

 looks right. Old residents learn to allow r 

 for this deception; but new comers are very 

 much astonished. 



December 4-— To Huber. O Huber ! I 

 wish you could be with papa just a few min- 

 utes. All around me are the great moun- 

 tains, with the sun shining on their peaks. 

 Befoie me is a beautiful green tree, just 

 splendid with loads of red berries. Beside 

 me are Frankie and his sister, and Norman is 

 drawing his wagon up the hill, and Louisa 

 is the baby. The boys are bareheaded and 

 barefooted right here in the winter. They 

 are asking me why I did not bring Huber 

 along. I have just been up the canyon a mile 

 or more to see a beautiful waterfall. The 

 water comes down from about as high as 

 the chimney to our house ; and the funny 

 part of it is, that the water itself has made 

 a trough on the back side of the falls, so it 

 just slides down. The water is of a kind 

 that covers every thing with stone. I had 

 to climb like every thing to get up to the 

 fall ; but as the buggy was waiting for me, 

 I skipped back down the rocks pretty lively. 

 I feel real strong and w r ell and happy. The 

 buggy is waiting now, so I must stop writ- 

 ing and bid the little prattlers and their 

 mamma good-by. Off w r e go among the 

 great mountains again, and tind another 

 bee-man. There are. lots of bears around 

 here, and they trouble the bee-keepers. I 

 have just been looking at a big oak-tree that 

 has great scars on its bark, made by abear's 

 claws. Mr. Reasoner had bad luck with his 

 bees one year, so that only 11 colonies were 

 left. Well, an old bear came every night 

 and clawed the honey out until only one of 

 the 11 was left, and Mr. R. wanted so bad to 

 keep that one that he hung it up in the tree 

 by a rope, so high the old bear could not 

 reach it. lie could not carry it away, for the 

 bees that were gathering honey would be 

 lost ; but if it were hung up they could find 

 it. Well, that night the bear came after 

 more honey ; and as he could not reach that 

 last hive, he clawed up the tree and com- 

 menced to slide down on the rope, to get 

 the bees. Now, the rope held the hive very 

 well, but it wouldn't hold a big bear too, 

 and so it broke, and down came bear, bees, 

 and all. I guess he must have been some- 

 what astonished ; but he gathered himself 

 up and ate all the honey, and then went off. 

 As he had now got the last one, Mr. R. 

 thought he wouldn't come any more ; but 

 back he came the next night. Well, the 

 bees that had no hives wanted to work some- 

 where, and so they went into the bee-house 

 near by, and built some combs under the 

 clock-shelf, and, don't you believe that that 

 old bear smelled the honey under the clock- 

 shelf and wanted that too? but as the hon- 

 ey-house was shut up and locked, he could 

 not get in ; but he made a hole in one cor- 

 ner with his teeth and claw r s until he could 

 get one paw through, and then he reached 

 in as far as he could and tried to claw down 

 that last bit of honey the poor bees had 

 made. 1 saw the place where he made the 

 hole in the bee-house. 



And now it is night again, and papa is 



