76 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER, 



March 



Meaning of the Precious Stones. 



The meanings attached to the different 

 precious stones are as follows: The garnet 

 is constancy; the amethyst, sincerity; the 

 bloodstone, courage; the sapphire, inno- 

 cence; the emerald, success; the agate, 

 long life; the carnelian, continit; the 

 pearl, tears; the diamond, purity; the 

 opal, sorrow; the turquoise, happiness; 

 the malachite, prosperity. — Ladies' Homo 

 Journal. 



New England's L-onely Cabins. 



One bouse, bigger, barer and uglier 

 than the others, was the voluntary pris- 

 on of an old woman, who for five years 

 had not allowed a human being to cross 

 the threshold. Nobody thought her con- 

 duct odd or remarkable. I saw ber ouce 

 at the gate, and she poured out a flood 

 of meaningless babble in delight at the 

 possession of a listener. Her words were 

 inarticulate, just as sour beer runs, 

 choking itself, escaping from an uncork- 

 ed cask. 



"I've seen you passin before. There's 

 nobody ever passes but Len Moles goin 

 to his lobster pots twicet a week. I 

 locked my doors six year ago come July. 

 The folks tramped on my kitchen floor, 

 and I can't scrub it but once a day. The 

 year afore that I spent at my merrisd 

 da'ater'sou the cape. She didn't charge 

 Dothin for my ktep. To be sure, I 

 chored round an knitted regular. But I 

 took it kind in 'L!i:a, not chargin noth- 

 in. No bo;;rd all winter." 



"Do children here usually charge 

 their mothers for board?" I asked. 



"No," with a scared look; "they send 

 them to the house." 



"You must be lonely." 



"Me? No. I've got my cleanin to do. 

 An Len Moles goes by reg'lar. " 



In the old days solitude, fasting and 

 praying for five years no doubt brought 

 many a heri..it very near to God or ibo 

 devil, but a solitude of five years of 

 scrubbing and watching for Len Moles! 

 —Century. 



HO DENT STOWAWAYS. 



Vast Wuiubcrs of Them That Quit TMs 

 Country Kach Year. 



"Rats?' 



The woid was not spoken with any tone 

 of derision i r disgust. It was simply the 

 repetition ul' the latter part of a question 

 which had been addressed to a bluff Nor- 



wegian sea c.i;)tain wiio is in command 

 of one of the largest fruit steamers plying 

 between 2s'cw Orleans and the Central 

 American ports. 



"Rats? Why, there are millions of 

 them," ru. .lid the captain as he 

 thoughtfully t!)tik long "pulls" at his 

 pipe, "and tiic j'jculiar thing about them 

 is that there slcius to be just as many as 

 ever, in spite of the fact that the fruit 

 ships and alsuull the other ships take many 

 »way every trip. You may not believe it, 

 but I reckon wo must have aboard this 

 steamer many of the times she leaves New 

 Orleans 3U0 or 400 rats, and on the return 

 trip there is not one to be seen." 



"But what do you suppose becomes of 

 them :J1? Are they drowned at sea?" 



"No, 1 don't think so. I imagine they 

 leave the steamer when she touches at the 

 different Central American ports on her 

 voyage. Sometimes, though, we have but 

 a few of them alioard when we leave port, 

 and then we don't see much of them. 

 Other times there's lots of them, especial- 

 ly on warm, calm nights. They run all 

 over the ship and even are seen on the 

 rigging ami sails. They come out of the 

 hold to get scraps from the steward's gal- 

 lery and got mighty troublesome." 



"Don't the steamers ever have any cats 

 aboard to keep them out of the way at 

 least?" 



"Oh, yes, we have a cat or two general- 

 ly, but there are sometimes so many rata 

 that they cannot do much toward keeping 

 them even below the decks." 



During a pause in the conversation the 

 following computation was made to show 

 the captain the immense number of rata 

 that were carried away from this port 

 every year by the fruit steamers alone, 

 providing his assertions were correct: 



"Considering that there are 20 ships 

 engaged in the fruit trade, and that they 

 make on an average 20 trips a year, there 

 would be a grand total of 400 departures 

 of fruit steamers, and estimating that 

 each steamer carried away from 200 to 

 300 rats every trip they would decrease 

 the rat poijulation of the city by at least 

 100,000 during the 12 months, this calcu- 

 lation being made in regard to the 20 

 fruit ships alone. If all the other ships 

 that come to New Orleans during the year 

 carried away the average number of 200 

 rats a trip, the total exodus of rats from 

 here would amount to the considerable 

 number of 300,000 annually, not a small 

 army by any means." — New Orleans 

 Times-Democrat. 



The burning of the yule log in England 

 is a relic of the Scandinavian worship of 

 the god Thor. flis feast was called Yule 

 or Yuletide. 



