1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



67 



HE GOT HIS PAY. 



An Odd Coincidence That Occurred Be- 

 t\veen Borrower and Lender. 



'•Hero is one of the odd coincidences of 

 life," said my friend Williams. 'Sonu! 

 time ago an accjuaintancecame to me and 

 told me he was in great need of i^l5, and ai 

 considerable trouble to myself I let him 

 have it. He promised to return it in a few 

 days. 



"When three weeks had elapsed, I men- 

 tioned the matter to him casually, and he 

 was profusely apologetic — would send it 

 to me the fullowing day sure. It didn't 

 come, though, nor did I get any word 

 from him. About two weeks after that I 

 met hiuj in Broadway. He declared it wag 

 a shame I iiadn't got my money and 

 vowed he wouldn't let another day pass 

 VPitliout paying me. 



"It went along th^n for a week or ten 

 days, and, as my expenses were very 

 heavy, I was considerably embarrassed 

 and needed the money badly. One night, 

 when I was feeling particularly discour- 

 aged, I sat down and wrote him a note. I 

 said: 'My Dear Sir — About six weeks ago I 

 loaned you |15. Lest the paying it should 

 occasion you any inconvenience allow me 

 to hereby make you a present of the 

 money.' # 



"That will bring it, if anything will, 

 thought I. Judge of my surprise when 

 by the next morning's mail I received a 

 letter from the man inclosing the $15. By 

 the same mail exactly ho must have re- 

 ceived mine making him a present of it, 

 and by the dates both letters were evi- 

 dently written at about the same hour. " 

 — New York Herald. 



Wellington and the Toad. 



Napoleon was worshiped and feared, but 

 men loved and adored the Iron Duke. Of 

 the former, how few are the kindly human 

 traits recorded, while of the other to 

 this day fresh proofs keep coming to light 

 of simple sweetness dwelling long in the 

 minds of men! The following anecdote 

 concerning a letter lately exhumed may 

 serve as one instance out of a thousand il- 

 lustrating the sympathetic nature of the 

 great commander. 'The letter, so far as niy 

 memory serves, was in some such terms as 

 these: 



"Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington 

 begs to inform William Harris that his 

 toad is alivo and well." 



It seems tluit the duke, in the course of 

 a country stroll, had come upon a little 

 boy weeping bitterly over a toad. A 

 Strange trio they must have been — the 

 lean, keen e>ed old soldier, the flushed, 

 Bobbins boy, anij betw.een.them the wrin- 



Kiea repine squatting, with tearless eyes 

 and throbbing sides. The boy wept be- 

 cause he was going to school next day. He 

 had come daily to feed his toad. The little 

 heart was racked with grief because he 

 feared his darling would be neglected 

 when he was gone and might starve. The 

 duke's heart was as soft as the boy's, for 

 he undertook to see that the toad was 

 looked after, and the letter above quoted 

 is one of the subsequent bulletins. — Bos- 

 ton Post. 



Potatoes. 



If baked potatoes are to be more digesti- 

 ble than those that are boiled, they must 

 lie baked in a quick oven where the starch 

 granules are exposed to a greater degree 

 of heat than in boiling, and consequently 

 where a greater chemical change takes 

 place. Baked potatoes retain their salts 

 and potash, that are usually lost by boil- 

 ing them without their jackets. In taking 

 baked potatoes from the oven pricking 

 or pressing them quickly will allow the 

 Bteam to escape, and they will not be so 

 apt to grow watery if it is necessary tO' 

 delay the eating of them. In a similar 

 way boiled potatoes that cannot bo eaten 

 at once may be kept more "mealy" if not 

 closely covered, as in case there is no es- 

 cape for the steam that accumulates on the 

 cover over them it will drip back on to 

 the potatoes. — New York Post. 



The Difference. 



Oldboy — Hello, old man! What's up? 

 You don't look as trim as you used to 

 during the first few months of your honey- 

 moon. Doesn't your wife still brush you 

 up? 



Wedly — No. She combs me down. — 

 New York Herald. 



Scenery In Bering Sea. 



"Sailing southeasterly along the shore- 

 of that haunt of the walrus and polar bear 

 — St. Matthew's island in the Bering 

 sea," said a navigator of those waters, 

 "one is impressed by the mingling of the 

 grotesque and the terrible in the character 

 of the scenery. The northwest point of the 

 island is split up into a collection of large 

 rocks of most fantastic shapes. Houses, 

 spires, cathedrals and figures of men and 

 beasts are some of the forms assumed by 

 these volcanic fragments, which, rising 

 black above the white, seething foam of 

 the sea that breaks against their base give 

 > weird aspect to the grim and desolate re- 

 gion. Ono rock resembling a large saddle 

 Buggested to me the thought that some 

 antediluvian giant might in his time have 

 straddled it and jjerhaps fished for reptil- 

 ia over the beetling cliffs which it sur- 

 mounts." — N'lw York Sun. 



