1890. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPKR. 



359 



The White Trout Legend. 



In county Tipperary, Ireland, there 

 is a holy wt'Il in whi :h swiius a white 

 trout with n red spt)t on its side. Ludy 

 Wilde, mother of the poet, tells the fol- 

 lowing legend of how this strange fish 

 originated: When Cromwell's arnij' was 

 passing through Irehiud, it bivouacked 

 in the neighborhond of this well. A hoI- 

 dier, hearing of the splendid white 

 trout in it, s'??ore ho would have it for 

 his next meal. With a scoop net he 

 managed to capture the fish, and when 

 he reached home laid it in the frying 

 pan. Immediately it leaped out on the 

 floor. Several times this s».ts repeated. 

 Finally the soldier put the lid on the 

 pan and a great stone upon it to hold it 

 down. When he thought the fish cook- 

 ed, he transferred it to a plate. The 

 moment, however, he stuck his fork in- 

 to it there v."as a great shriek, the trout 

 leaped to the floor, and there instead of 

 a fish lay a beautiful young girl with 

 blood streaming from her side where 

 the fork had entered. The girl reproach- 

 ed the soldier with his cruelty and com- 

 manded him to put her in the well, 

 where she was obliged to stay until the 

 last day under the spell of enchantment. 

 This the soldier did, and the enchanted 

 one is still there, in the form of a white 

 trout, with a blood red mark upon its 

 side. The legend doea cot tell what be- 

 came of the soldier. 



Wanted Too IMucli For Earth. 



The janitor had conducted her 

 through the building, and she seemed 

 not altogether displeased with some of 

 the apartments. 



"I hope," she said, "that none of 

 the people hero keep dogs. ' ' 



' 'Some of them do, ' ' replied the truth- 

 ful employee. 



"Are there any children?" 



"Tiiere ain't any use of insistin on 

 folks beiu born growed up. " 



"The style of the decorations doesn't 

 exactly please me." 



"They're all brand new, and I'm 

 afraid the landlord wouldn't change 

 'em." 



"Does anybody in the building play 

 the piano?" 



"No, ma'am. But two or three* peo- 

 ple is learuiu. " 



"That's too bad. I dislike noises. It's 



a very nice place in many respects. iJut 

 dogs bark, and cliildren cry, and pianos 

 jangle, and I'm very particular about 

 decorations. " 



"Well, ma'am, there's only one 

 thing I can say. " 



" v^/hat is it?" 



"You can't expect to rent heaven for 

 $60 a mouth. " — Washington Star. 



An Old Country Superstition. 



In some of the southern counties of 

 England queer superstitions are current 

 about eating blackberries after Michael- 

 mas day. The country people say that 

 on Michaelmas eve the old gentleman 

 "plants his cloveo foot" on all the 

 blackberries as yet ungathered. After 

 this date, Sept. 29, it is unlucky to 

 pick or eat the fruit. 



The date upon which the devil "puts 

 his foot down" against blackberry eat- 

 ing varies in different districts. In 

 some it is as late as Oct. 10, by which 

 time one would naturally suppose there 

 were no blackberries left to stamp out. 

 But the story of his prohibition is told 

 in many places. Great misfortune, sick- 

 nes.s or death will surely follow disobe- 

 dience to his orders. 



But why his satauic majesty should 

 concern himself so particularly about 

 blackberries, when so many greater mat- 

 ters might be said to claim his atten- 

 tion, none of the stories states. It may 

 be that he considers blackberries too 

 healthy and wishes to limit the consump- 

 tion. 



Useful aiemher of a Family. 



The Portuguese say that no man can 

 be a good husband who does not eat a 

 good breakfast, which leads the Water- 

 bury American to say this is a mean 

 way of throwing upon the wife all the 

 responsibility for the husband's good- 

 ness, for without a good wife there can 

 be no good breakfast for him to eat. 

 That may be right in theory, but it is 

 wrong in practice. We know a man 

 who has cooked breakfast the greater 

 part of the time for the past 15 years 

 for his family. And we violate no con- 

 fidence when we say it is a good break- 

 fast too. He is a man who loves good 

 living, and he knows how to prepare a 

 meal with the best of women. Yet he 

 is a workingmau who puts in from 10 

 to 15 hours a day of hard work and the 

 kind of work that is exhausting.^ 



