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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



OUR . 



HOMES,! 



BY A.I. ROOT. "^ 



And the I,ord God said, It is not good that the man 

 should be alone ; I will make him a help meet for 

 him— Gen. 2 : 18. 



About the first of September Mrs. Root 

 and I went back to our Ohio home, she to 

 sta3^ about four weeks and I about two 

 weeks. She worried somewhat about my 

 plan of staying- alone in our home in the 

 woods for two weeks; but as I got on very 

 well with my own cooking for two weeks 

 last March, I did not apprehend any par- 

 ticular trouble or inconvenience. To mj' sur- 

 prise, however, I began almost at once to feel 

 very lonely and I'ery homesick. It was not 

 really hoDiesickness, however, for I did not 

 want any other home. I only longed for the 

 bright little companion and "help meet ' 

 (as our text has it) who has all m}' life pre- 

 sided over my home. In vain did I tell my- 

 self it was only two weeks, a few days at 

 most, and I told myself again and again 

 that, if I kept busy, the time would soon, 

 pass. To my surprise, however, it was not 

 such an easy matter to keep busy. Ordi- 

 narily I can keep busy without any trouble. 

 Ever since 1 was a boy this wonderful 

 world has always presented to me enough 

 to investigate and explore, so it has always 

 been an easy matt-er to pass the time or oc- 

 cupy' any bit of leisure time that came in 

 my way; but here was almost a new expe- 

 rience. 



I am going over this in considerable detail 

 for I believe God sent me these few gloomy 

 days just to enable me to speak comforting 

 words to some other poor suffering brother 

 or sister. I do not even now understand it; 

 but this lost and lonely feeling took such 

 possession of me that 1 lost interest and en- 

 thusiasm in every thing. In vain did I 

 wander from one spot to another where I 

 had until then found things without num- 

 ber to make me happy, but they had all lost 

 their interest and charm. At every turn 

 some object or some piece of work reminded 

 me of the dear wife in a wa5' that gave me 

 a twinge of pain — no, that does not describe 

 it. I turned from one thing to another sick 

 at heart; and again and again I found my- 

 self moping iibjut in a despondent way and 

 doing nothing. I would have gladly gone 

 back to Medina, but 1 could give no reason- 

 able excuse for such a piece of folly and 

 foolish waste of money, and I tried again 

 and again to be a sensible Jiian and not be 

 " a baby.'" I presume one reason for this 

 experience is that we two have been all 

 summer long up here almost alone, and al- 

 ways together. We have worked and plan- 

 ned together in the house and out of doors. 

 I have every day shown her my invenlious 

 and short cuts in doing work, and she in 

 like manner has called my attention to some 

 new thing of hers to make this little wild 

 home attractive. If a ^-tjung man of eighteen 



or twenty had found some nice girl so 

 agreeable that he felt as if he couldn't be 

 happy even one whole day out of her sight, 

 we older ones might smile, and think it 

 nothing very remarkable; but that a man 

 of sixty-two could neither work nor play 

 because the wife he had lived with forty 

 years was away for a zveek — why, it was 

 ridiculous, and I told myself so over and 

 over. 



Something- tells me right here that there 

 are not a few men and women who would 

 say, " Dear Bro. Root, did it not occur to 

 you at that time that you might be some 

 time called upon to give up this dear wife, 

 nevermore to see her here on this earth? " 



Yes, it did come to me again and again, 

 and I fell on my knees in my lonely rooin 

 and said, "God have mercy on me a sin- 

 ner. Forg-ive my foolish weakness, and 

 help me to realize how much I have to be 

 thankful for." 



God did answer my prayer, and helped 

 me to rise above such weakness, to a cer- 

 tain extent; but I felt for days as if the 

 great Father was, through this experience, 

 teaching me a wholesome lesson. I have 

 felt a sympathy for those who have lost 

 loved ones as I never did before. I once vis- 

 ited Pi'of. W. I. Chamberlain, now one of 

 the associate editors of the Ohio Farmer. He 

 was showing me and some other visitors 

 over his farm, and talking in a very ani- 

 mated way. The subject of potato boxes or 

 crates came up, and he called us all to- 

 come into his shop and see his "rig-" for 

 nailing them up. All of a sudden he stop- 

 ped as if he had been struck a blow unex- 

 pectedly. There was a look of pain and 

 suffering- on his face I shall never forget. 

 Without his knowledge some one had put 

 his boy's wheel in the shop, I presume be- 

 cause he did not know where else to put it. 

 The bo3% one of great promise, had recently- 

 died suddenly. He explained, and excused 

 himself by saj'iny something like this: 



"My God! there is that boy's wheel! If 

 it were not for the hope of meeting him 

 again, in the far-awa}' future, dear friends, 

 I should feel as if I could not live; and, in 

 fact, I believe I should not zvant to live." 



Well, I never realized, until I had this, 

 experience, just how the sight of that wheel 

 filled my good friend's soul with anguish, 

 nor how a real faith in God and his prom- 

 ises can bring tranquillity and peace when 

 nothing else in this great wide universe can 

 help. The greatest ^gift God ever gave to 

 man was ivoman — at least his greatest gift 

 to me has been m}' companion, my helper, 

 my daily "comrade," as I often call her. 

 I believe God intended man should consider 

 woman as the gift above all other gifts. Do 

 you suggest there are good women and bad 

 women? My reply is that the wife is, at 

 least to a very great extent, what the hus- 

 band makes her. 



Our text says, "It is not good that the 

 man should be alone." / think this means 

 that every good man should be a -married 

 man. I confess that, when I see a man oc- 



