1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



103 



ItOMLS 



iyAJ.ROOT 



I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which 

 thou Shalt go: 1 will guide thee with mine eye — 

 Psalm 32 :8. 



Those who are young and well should bear 

 in mind these notes are mainly for elderly 

 people, or those who feel their strength and 

 energy are failing Of course, these talks 

 may be useful in holding up a wai'ning to 

 those who are young and strong, for you 

 know that, to be forewarned, is to be fore- 

 armed. After I purchased the one acre near 

 Bradentown I wrote friend Rood asking if it 

 would be possible for Mrs. Root and me to 

 get a couple of rooms in the ne'ghborhood, so 

 we could be near by while our house ("cab- 

 in in the woods"' No. 3) was being built. He 

 replied he knew of none; but if we two were 

 willing to accept their every-day fare they 

 would try to accommodate us in their own 

 home. We finally arranged that I should go 

 on ahead and build the house, and let Mrs. 

 Root come later. 



Let me here remind you, dear reader, that 

 I have been writing these Home Papers for 

 more than 25 years; and during all this lime 

 I have been studying with intense interest 

 the homes where our people live and where 

 our children are brought up— not only Amer- 

 ican homes, but I have studied also with in- 

 tense interest the homes of the people in 

 Canada, Cuba, Bermuda, and every other 

 place when and where an opportunity offer- 

 ed. You can understand, then, how 1 re- 

 joiced at an opportunity of getting a gimpse. 

 at close range, of the home life of some of 

 the best Christian people I have the honor 

 to number among my friends. 



Now, every family has its own peculiar 

 ways and notions. Like people, they have 

 an individuality. For instance, Mrs. Root 

 and I have all our lives been in the habit of 

 getting up early, say 5 o'clock or earlier, the 

 year round. We have our breakfast over 

 and put away, often before our children and 

 grandchildren are up. Mind you, I don't 

 t-ay our way is the best; but we got used to 

 it on the farm, and rather liked to keep it up. 



Now. j)lease don't you, any of you, think I 

 am finding fault and feel hurt when I tell 

 you how a great blessing came to me when I 

 least expected it. 1 shall always thank God 

 for having given me the privilege of getting 

 a glimpse of the home life of such a family 

 as that of dear brother Rood's; but when 1 

 found that their hours for meals were an 

 hour later, and sometimes more than that, I 

 at first felt a little fear lest I might not feel 

 as well under the arrangement. Mr. Rood 

 is up fairly early, gets all his men at work, 

 and the general business of the day well un- 

 der way, and then comes in to breakfast. 

 After quite a little work outdoors before 



breakfast, all have good appetites, and we 

 have a rather long breakfast, with lots of 

 visiting and much merriment Everybody 

 has a chance to -'chew his food " thoroughly. 



Well, when breakfast is ended, instead of 

 rushing off to work brother Rood gets a 

 whole armful of bibles, and we read around 

 until we finish a chapter — that is, unless the 

 chapter is very long — closing with prayer. 

 Let me say here that Mrs. Root and I have 

 had bible-reading and prayer all our lives, 

 after breakfast, but "we r.ead only a few 

 verses; and when things are rushing the 

 prayer is often very brief. Well, Mr. Rood 

 is one of the busiest men I ever knew. He 

 has his strawberries, lettuce, and cauliflower 

 by the acre; then he has charge of eight or 

 ten apiaries, deals in real estate, loans mon- 

 ey, and I don't know what else. Yet with 

 all this business he deliberately drops every 

 thing and gives his Maker the very best part 

 of his energies, right out of the early fore- 

 noon. I am sure he and his beau'iful bright 

 family will forgive me if I confess that at 

 first 1 felt worried for fear he was giving too 

 much attention to God's holy word in the 

 very best part of the day. Why, it is almost 

 funny, when you come to think of it. to hear 

 of a man who is an educated lawyer (and a 

 bright one too) having so much bible in his 

 home that A 1 Root felt worried. 



Well, just before noon he takes his berries 

 to market (carrying strawberries to town 

 the day before Christmas, for instance); and 

 as everybody seems to want his advice or 

 something, he seldom gets home until a pret- 

 ty late dinner hour, and with supper it is 

 much the same. Do you wonder that very 

 soon I began breathing my little prayer, 

 "Lord, help me to learn the new lesson thou 

 art striving to teach me " ? Did you ever try 

 to drive an excited hen into the very place 

 where she could find food, water, and every 

 thing she was in great need of?* Well, you 

 and 1 are often like that hen. We grumble 

 and complain, and act contrary, until we 

 find the imagined hardship or calamity was 

 one of God's choicest blessings. Well, when 

 Mr. R. was sometimes unusually late, and I 

 felt too much used up to work or read, I 

 finally decided to take my noonday nap be- 

 fore instead of after dinner, and was amaz- 

 ed to find 1 was not particularly faint or 

 hungry after the nap. I did the same thing 

 in the evening, and then my appetite began 

 to increase amazingly. Then it occurred to 

 me that my very warm friend Dr. Salisbury 

 told me, almost forty years ago, that it would 

 add years to my life if I would take a good 

 rest lying down, and, if possible, a short nap 

 before eating a meal. Of course, one is ex- 

 pected to be well rested before breakfast; but 

 he said the digestive machinery could never 

 do good work when one comes to his meals 

 exhausted and tired out. For years past I at 

 times feel soused up before dinner time that 



* Our pastor said last evening (at cur Wednesday- 

 evening prayer-meeting) that God planned to take the 

 children of Israel into the promised land by a short 

 quick route, but owing to their obstinacy and "stiff- 

 neckedness " the best he could do was to get them 

 there in forty years. 



