700 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



OUR 



HOMES, 



BY A.I. ROOT. 



The Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not want. — Psalm 

 23:1. 



He who claims the implied promise in the 

 first verse of this justly celebrated psalm, 

 at the time he does so takes upon himself a 

 responsibility. He declares himself one of 

 the flock; and David's faith that he will 

 have no "lack," or shall not suffer for 

 want of any thing, is based on the assump- 

 tion that his '" wants " are going- to be 

 simple and reasonable. Nowadays it is 

 said there are people who " want the whole 

 earth." Such people will never be enrolled 

 among the flock of the good Shepherd, and, 

 of course, do not expect to be comforted by 

 any of these precious promises. My im- 

 pression is, David wrote these beautiful 

 words before he had been dazzled by a 

 king's palace, and most certainly before he 

 had gone so far in sin as to " want " an- 

 other man's wife when he had one of his 

 own. We all know that people who have 

 most of what this world can furnish are by 

 no means the happiest ones. Solomon with 

 all his wealth and wisdom (and wives)^^% 

 far from being a happy man; and history 

 has repeated itself all the way down to the 

 present day. The one who makes this lit- 

 tle prayer (I like to call the 23d Psalm a 

 prayer) his own, and who is satisfied be- 

 cause his wants are all supplied, must be 

 in an attitude to be happy and satisfied 

 with what God sees fit to give him. 



The next verse speaks of "green pas- 

 tures " and " still waters." How many at 

 the present day would be content with such 

 a life, more than perhaps a day or two in 

 summer time, for a change? It is not only 

 millions the restless throng clamor for, but 

 more millions. People make slaves of them- 

 selves, gocrazy, and die. They barter health, 

 reputation, and life itself, and yet the mil- 

 lions do not bring happiness to the few who 

 get them — certainly not such happiness as 

 is expressed in this brief little psalm of 

 only six verses. 



I am almost ashamed to tell of it, it was 

 such a simple thing that brought this text 

 to my mind. I shall have to confess, first, 

 that even this "cabin in the woods" has 

 not given me, all the time, such perfect 

 health as I may have led you to suppose — 

 at least I began to think it didn't; but per- 

 haps it was my own fault, and not that of 

 the " cabin." 



Along in July my digestion got bad 

 again ; and had I been in Ohio I fear I 

 should have said those old malarial chills 

 were hanging about me again. I told Mrs. 

 Root I feared I should have to go back to 

 "pills," although I had taken no physic 

 for almost a year. She advised trying" a 

 change of diet first, for we are both trying 

 to find a way of " doctoring without medi- 

 cine," and before night I found some "med- 



icine" furnished by God's own hand, and 

 coming direct from his hand. Owing to 

 our excessive rains the wild red raspber- 

 ries are all through the woods, and more 

 plentiful than they have been for years. In 

 fact, you can not go in any direction from 

 our cabin without running into them. Eve- 

 rybody is so busy with the abundant har- 

 vests that Mrs. Root and I seem to be the 

 only people who can take time to "go ber- 

 rying." I had tried them at meal time, 

 with sugar ard cream, but thej^ didn't 

 seem to "agree with me." I decided to 

 try them "out of hand," right from the 

 bushes, just as I did when a boy. They 

 just seemed to "hit the spot," and no bad 

 efi^ects followed at all. Then I began to 

 eat them at all hours of the day, and I ate 

 so many I hardly wanted any thing else 

 when meal time came. I am happy and 

 well, just on the " raspberry cure." Every 

 day I am having a big " playspell " ram- 

 bling through our " woods," and gathering 

 berries. 



Well, it was this experience that brought 

 to my mind the text, "The Lord is my 

 shepherd; I shall not want." You know 

 how much I have prayed over this matter of 

 remedies, etc. The Lord will and does 

 supply not only daily food, but food that 

 will correct our ill health is spread, like 

 the manna of olden time, all about us if we 

 but reach forth and take it. 



There are several varieties of red rasp- 

 berries about here, and many of them are 

 but little inferior to the cultivated ones. I 

 have some very choice tame ones in our ra- 

 vine garden, so as to compare them. The 

 bushes in the woods are so full, and they 

 are now so dead ripe, that you can hardly 

 touch a bush without hearing the luscious 

 fruit drop oft" and rattle on the leafy carpet 

 below. The wild ones have an advantage 

 we can hardly give our tame ones, how- 

 ever. One evening Mrs. Root had her sew- 

 ing and easy- chair out on the lawn. I 

 stra3'ed away perhaps three or four rods, 

 and, standing on the log fence, I reached 

 for some of my favorite berries. Over the 

 fence was a steep ravine full of dead trees 

 and brush, but I did not suppose the ground 

 was very far below. The rotten log crum- 

 bled, and I went down headlong into the 

 brush and debris. Although we are hav- 

 ing quite a dry spell now, when my hands 

 got to the ground ten or twelve feet below. I 

 found it damp and almost swampy. The 

 berry-canes had grown clear up through to 

 the sunlight, and no wonder the fruit was 

 large and luscious. I presume tame ber- 

 ries could be started in such a place: if so, 

 we needn't fear dry weather. It is right 

 on T. B. Terry's plan of growing all bush 

 berries under a heavj' covering or mulching 

 of straw.* 



* There h.is been an impression, quite general, that 

 seeds of berries have something to do with the cause 

 of appendicitis, so prevalent of late. I have just talked 

 with an able ph^-sician in regard to it, and he says the 

 best authority at the present time thinks this a mis- 

 take, and that, on the contrary, these berries with ^-o 

 many seeds are just what humanity needs about the 



