GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



sanitary cisterns in times past, and I may 

 take it up again before I get through 

 "building our bungalow." 



You may wonder what all the above has 

 to do with the three texts I have chosen. 

 Well, we are just getting around to it. 

 In planning our new little home we decid- 

 ed, or at least I did, that we wanted it 

 very near to the five homes where our chil- 

 dren have their homes near each other. The 

 most available site was where a tenement 

 house has stood for something over twenty 

 years. This house was built on the old- 

 fashioned plan of having it close up to the 

 street. Were it not for this, Mrs. Root 

 thought that the old house fixed over would 

 do very well, say during the remainder of 

 our lives. But the young folks all put in 

 a big protest. First, they would not con- 

 sent that their father and mother should 

 live in any such "domicil," even when fixed 

 over; secondly, they are planning a. nice 

 street, and this one little house would spoil 

 the effect of all the other houses on that 

 street, and so the house in question would 

 have to be moved back or moved away en- 

 tirely. The three other dwellings already 

 on this street are all back a uniform dis- 

 tance, with nice green lawns in front, and 

 therefore this house must be moved back. 

 I said if it were to be moved back it should 

 be moved further away, and have our bun- 

 galow take its jolace, located back on a line 

 with the three other homes. ISTow, let 

 me digress a little right here. 



The past month or six weeks have been 

 one of the happiest periods of my life; 

 and as I have said several times before, 

 this was because it was one of the busiest 

 times of my life. In planning for the bun- 

 galow there were errands innumerable back 

 and forth from the factory to the new 

 building. With my little electric automo- 

 bile which I have before mentioned, I can 

 get around almost anywhere, and go with 

 the speed of the wind, or even faster, when 

 I am in a hurry. It will go backward or 

 forward, turn about in a narrow space, 

 and, with the practice I have had with it, 

 it seems almost like bringing to pass the 

 dreams pictured in that old book the 

 Arabian Nights. Mrs. Root tells all the 

 children to call on me any time, for noth- 

 ing makes me happier than running on 

 errands with the little auto. With it I can 

 bring quite a little load of cement, doors, 

 windows, small bundles of lumber, etc. 



Well, another thing that has made me 

 particularly happy is the presence of the 

 Holy Spirit; and my constant prayer, both 

 night and day, has been, to use the lan- 

 guage of that beautiful text, "Grieve not 



the Holy Spirit." I wonder how many 

 of the world know what a precious thing 

 it is to feel the presence of that Holy 

 Spirit every day of their lives ; or, in other 

 words, to feel, even through the busy rush 

 of business, the words, "Well done, thou 

 good and faithful servant." In an estab- 

 lishment like ours, Avhere there are usually 

 two hundred hands or more employed, a 

 lot of them outdoors as well as indooi"s, 

 there are frequent misunderstandings. 

 Somebody's feelings have been hurt by j 

 foolish gossip. Another one has been I 

 reproved when he was not at fault. Some- 

 body has not had his wages advanced when 

 they ought to have been; and somebody 

 occasionally, on the other hand, idles away 

 his time instead of attending to his own 

 proper task. Well, when I am feeling real 

 well, as I do now, it is a pleasui'e to me to 

 listen to their particular trials and to help 

 right little wrongs. When I can get some 

 one to take up his task with renewed cour- 

 age, say with a glad heart instead of a sad 

 one, then I feel that voice of the Holy 

 Spirit. 



J^Tow, the above would look as if I must 

 be a "pretty good old man," would it not? 

 But I want to quote from my father's 

 favorite text once more : "He knoweth our 

 frame that we are but dust." Notwith- 

 standing what I have been telling you, 

 every little while I am obliged to remember 

 that I am but dust after all; and not only 

 that, but at times I am exceedingly 

 "dusty." 



After the matter had been thrashed over, 

 and Mrs. Root and I had consented to 

 move the house away and not spoil the 

 street, and after the ground had been care- 

 fully staked off where the house should be 

 located, so as to be ready to begin on the 

 cellar, some of the younger ones wanted 

 it further away; and after we had spent 

 considerable time in surveying and plac- 

 ing the stakes, we pulled them up and set 

 them again; and three good stout men 

 commenced digging out the cellar. After 

 about an hour's work, however, the young 

 folks again wanted the location changed. 

 I objected to so much waste of time and 

 labor. One of the boys said, "Why, father, 

 how much does throwing out fifty cents' 

 worth of dirt, and putting it back again, 

 amount to compared with the future ap- 

 pearance of the street?" 



Reluctantly I told the men to stop work. 

 Then three of my sons-in-law, with their 

 tapelines and stakes, commenced planning 

 and surveying. I grumbled about having 

 the men stand still, for it always vexes me 

 to have a gang of men, right in the middle 



