226 



THE A:\lERlr.\X BF/E-KEEPER 



December 



Dear Brotlier Hill: 



Now what do you think of A. Q. 

 Cumber V He's all "cut up." peppered 

 and vinegared, and writes as if I had 

 "saulted him too. He says "the bee busi- 

 ness ^needs some things pretty bad just 

 now"— and it is getting "em. He also 

 says he has always flattered himself, etc. 

 Ah, me. how little he realizes that 

 "pride cometh before a fall." Suppose 

 you tell him for how much I under- 

 took certain journali.stic labors: 'twill 

 give him an awful tumble, so send him 

 some of your oil to go with the pepper, 

 vinegar and "sault. And will you be so 

 kind as to loan him the volume of your 

 encyclopedia containing the article on 

 Samuel John.son. I..L. D.. Lexi- 

 cographer. Journalist and Poet, after 

 which he may be interested in Boswell's 

 Life of Johnson. "Dr. Johnson, who- 

 ever he may be." Oh. dear, tliat is ir- 

 resistibly funny. 



'Tis a wearisome and puzzling world, 

 this, and one never knows how to take 

 a body. Who'd have thought that Cu-" 

 cumber was of the "spined" variety? 

 Nothing was farther from my thoughts 

 than hurting hi. feelings, but just see 



SEIRIEISI! 



Iiow he took my badinage. It grieves 

 me much. 



Writing of grief reminds me of the 

 first article in the October Bee-Keeper 

 Ihat Rhode Islander grieves so over 

 the shutting up of his bees for the win- 

 ter that he even puts the hives into 

 mourning— wraps them in black tarred 

 paper. Fancy! does he weep too? 



So you have borrowed some "Stray 

 Straws" have youV Was it to make 

 bricks with? Well, you might have 

 done worse, aye far worse. The kindly 

 doctor, who presides over that depart- 

 ment of Gleanings is one of those sun- 

 ny souls who makes the world better 

 just by being in it. Long may he stack 

 straw. 



What do I think of the department 

 "The Bee-Keeping World?" It's right 

 good, but aren't you a little presump- 

 tuous to try and get the World into 

 your little paper? However, as you 

 have that lively Tennesseean to help 

 you. you will succeed. He's a whole 

 regiment in himself: just a bit caustic 

 now and then, but that adds spice. 

 Then that solid German in York state 

 gives weight and stability to your 

 whirling universe. 



Um! So he of Cuba. N. Y.. has got 

 after you. Well, you get no .sympathy 

 here. Any one who will perpetrate 

 such puns as you did and be as face- 

 tious as you were in the October edi- 

 torials deserves something hot. 



Bro. Abbott is trying to make trou- 

 ble for himself. At the convention he 

 said some forcible things about the 

 need of mixing text books with brains. 

 First, he knows some one will say he's 



