1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



227 



001^ pejaEg. 



Then Simon Peter answeiod hira, liOrd, to whom 

 shall we ffo? thou hast the words oi eternal life.— 

 John H: 68. 



§OME of US are great talkers. We ex- 

 press every thought aii«l feeling l>y our 

 words. Others talk very little. They 

 may suffer keenly, and you would 

 hardly know it. or they may feel joy, 

 and give little expression to it. I have some- 

 times thought, however, that wIkmc one is 

 in the habit of using hut tew words, these 

 few words often carry the greatest weight 

 with them. Sometinies half a dozen lines 

 express more than pages could tell. It is to 

 half a dozen printed lines tiiat I \\isli to call 

 your attention in this Home Paper. 1 hive 

 read these half-dozen lines over and over 

 again, and each time J reail tliem thai old 

 prayer of mine comes up of itself. '' Lord, 

 help." Here is the letter : 



Friend B.— Gi.EANiNfjs came to rae yesterday, 

 and found a solitary bee Uoveriu^ over the cotfln- 

 lid of my darling, darlinfj- wife. Oh, tell me! can 

 there be any sweetness amid all this bitterness'/ 



Yours in sorrow, 



(J. ('. Stokkiv. 



Arnold ville. Ind. Ter., Jan. U, 1S8T. 



The plea goes up for help, not for mxself, 

 but for our suffering brother. The lines 

 themselves at first glance tell very little ; 

 but as I read them over tliey seem to say to 

 me something like this : 



Our friend has been a bee-keepei-. lie has 

 been in the hal)it of shaiing the joys and 

 pleasures of bee culture with the corapaiuon 

 of his home— with a companion given him 

 by God — sent him by God, as it were, to 

 make his life happy and pleasant. Accord- 

 ing to the commandment which God has laid 

 down in his holy word, they twain had be- 

 come one. What a beautiful partnership is 

 the relation existing l)etween man and wife! 

 We all crave companionship; and if tiiere 

 be one in the world who can lind happiness 

 without the companionship of a single human 

 being, he is an exception to the general rule 

 — a sort of abnormal human being. There 

 are those who may content themselves 

 a while off alone; biit soonei' or later they 

 want somel>ody to talk to— somebody for 

 company. And what more beautiful rela- 

 tion can there be than the relationship be- 

 tween a good man and a good womanV The 

 marriage-rite tells how it is— thev are to 

 help each other, to cheer and encduiage each 

 other, and to study each other's hai>i)iness ; 

 and as the years go by the attachment 

 is to become stronger and stronger, and they 

 are to become more and more unselfish, eacJi 

 one losing sight of self in making the other 

 happy. 



Some little time ago, Maud and I were vis- 

 iting one of her old college schoolmates. 

 Tliis schoolmate was united to the man of 

 her choice, and they had just moved into a 

 neat little cottage of their own planning and 

 building. He was thinking and talking of 

 his wife most of the time, and she was 

 thinking and talking of her htisband most 

 of the time— not in a silly way, but like two 

 goocTpure-minded people, or, if you choose, 



a good and pure-minded boy and girl. The 

 sight was a pleasant one to me. At the ta- 

 ble. I was, of course, asked to give thanks ; 

 and while doing so my heart was filled with 

 the thought of how much these two had to 

 thank God for. As we were about to retire 

 1 made the remark to my young friend . "Did 



it never occur to you^ "friend , that a 



good pure woman is the greatest Idessing 

 that God ever bestowed on man?'" 



His countenance brightened up at once as 

 he took in the thought, and replied, " In- 

 deed it is, Mr. Root ; and I believe you are 

 right, that the greatest gift God ever be- 

 stowed upon man was woman."' 



Let us now go back to the letter. Glean- 

 ings has been a welcome visitor in that 

 household. Possibly they two have sat un- 

 der their humble vine-covered porch, and 

 looked over its pages. May be they have to- 

 gether "got accpiainted'" with A. 1. Poot 

 through its pages, and, possibly, learned to 

 love him just a' little ; but may (iod grant, 

 that through him they have learned to love 

 the Savior morel Well, a number of Glean- 

 ings comes as usual on one of its semi- 

 monthly visits. The weather is warm in 

 Indian Territory, even during the middle of 

 January— at least, warm enough so the bees 

 are outa little. Perhaps the hearts of these 

 two have oftentimes been cheered by the 

 little winged busybodies in the depth of 

 winter, arid there is nothing very strange in 

 the fact that a solitary bee was buzzing 

 about when this number of Gleanings was 

 handed in, right from the postoffice. The 

 sight of (tLeanings, as well as the solitary 

 bee, might bring a thrill of pleasure to our 

 friend's heart at any other time, but how is 

 it now? Where is that bright, cheery, 

 joyous inmate of his household now? 

 In scarcely more than a line he tells us of 

 the sad. "sad story. Probably attracted 

 by the varnish of the new piece of wood- 

 work, this solitary bee has called. It is 

 only a simple piece of wood covered with 

 newly applied varnish. But what a story it 

 tells!' It is the eoffin-lid of the darling wife 

 —the great gift "that God gave to friend S. 

 has been suddenly called away. As I read the 

 lines over, and realized that it is possible — 

 nay. quite probable— that 7 may have to go 

 through such an ordeal, up conies that old 

 prayer again, " Lord, help!'" Lord, help me 

 when I shall be called upon to endure a 

 trial like this! As I think of it. I feel weak 

 and cowardly. For a little time 1 begin to 

 wonder whether even the religion that 1 

 taught so earnestly would help me to be 

 trustful and manly, were I tried as friend S. 

 has been tried. May (iod foryive my want 

 of faith and my human weakness when I 

 contemplate such a trial ! Mv mind runs 

 back to the old days of more than a (piaiter 

 of a century ago. when I lirst liegan lo get 

 acquainted'with the priceless srii't (iod had 

 then in store for me. I rememlier <'iir fool- 

 ish, cliildish actions whi'u we Hist iicgan to 

 get ac(]nainted. I remember the hours and 

 hours that- we wasted in trivial things. 



iVcrc thev wasted, dear readeiy I am al- 

 m>st afraid, if I siiould see two young peo- 

 ple now doing the same thing I should be 

 tempted to say they were wasting their pre- 



