50 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



February 



^' A FIELD OF DAiaiES. 



A»-ay and away on every side 



The wide Cflds billcAVLd in gold snd white- 

 Ten's of tboi;i-^..iK"iK of dairJiS fair 



Looked utj ;.-.i'.i welcon;ed the sunshine bright- 

 But the farnior leaned on his boe to rest 

 And mutterea frowningiy, "I'll be blcdt 

 If ever I see siich a spreadin pesti" 



His wife was bustling to ar.d fro, 



Making the guestrooms "Kiiifk and span," 

 Decorating with muslin and scrim. 



And the ever prese;it Jai^anese fan. 

 Then she threw her apron over her head 

 And out for a "posy" of daisies si^ed. 

 "The boarders 'il like 'em!" she brearhlesa 



said. 

 the "boarders" can. e, and with "Ohsl" and 

 "Ahs!" 

 Greeted the fields where the daisies trooped, 

 ^d they plucked them for belt and breast 

 and hair, 

 Thon threw them down where they faded 

 and drooped. 

 And they fell in the dusty wagon track, 

 Where the clumsy oxen drew cart and rack, 

 And their trampled beauty came not back. 



But the little daughter wandered forth 



Under the branching apple trees 

 That bordered the field, and lived all day 



■With birds and flowers and whispering 

 breeze. 

 And the daisies listed her prattle sweet, 

 And told her stories for fairies meet, 

 Such as only the daisies can repeat. 



And the poet, dreaming beneath the trees, 



Half in shadow and half in sun. 

 As tlie drifting clouds moved overhead. 



Lived with the daisies till day was done. 

 And they wakened thoughts that in liquid 



rhyme 

 Carried the soul of the summer time 

 To an exile lone in a dreary clime. 

 —Minnie Leona Upton in Good Housekeeping. 



A SURPRISE. 



Mr. audMrs. Bert Lester bad a flat on 

 the North Side. 



They were and are the kind of young 

 married people calculated to restore a 

 feeling of confidence as to matrimony. 



Many a bachelor after spending an 

 evening at the Lester flat and rioting in 

 the simple delights of a "Dutch lunch" 

 would remark to some other bachelor 

 as they were walking homeward, "Say, 

 if I knew where there was another Mrs. 

 Bert Lester, I'd be a married man in 

 less than six months." 



The Lesters had a dozen or more men 

 friends, mostly of the hotel kind, but 

 Joe Barnet held the record for constant 

 attendance. When there was any sort 

 of social gathering at the Lester flat, Joe 



was neither absent nor tardy. He and 

 Bert Lester had been good friends long 

 before there was any Lester flat. Mrs. 

 Lester believed that Joe was an "awful- 

 ly nice follow. " She had laid certain 

 plans for his future, 



Louise Rhodes had been preached to 

 Joe Barnet for a year. 



Her picture was on the Lester mantel, 

 and her name went back and forth be- 

 tween the Lestor.s. 



"Oh, Joe, I must have Louise come 

 up to visit me," Mrs. Lester would say 

 when she had dragged Joe up to the 

 photograph for the hundredth time. 

 "You'll like her immensely. She's as 

 clever as she can be, and pretty. Joe, 

 her father has plenty of money . too. 

 Think of that." 



"I don't see why that should interest 

 me," Joe would reply with an indiffer- 

 ence which was wholly assumed. 



" Well, if I was a man there would 

 not be many girls like Louise Rhodes 

 running around single." 



"You couldn't marry more than one 

 of them. " 



"You're very bright tonight, aren't 

 you? Wait till you see her. I know you 

 will fall in love with her, and then it 

 will serve you right if she refuses to 

 look at you at all." 



Mrs. Bert Lester and the much talked 

 of Louise Rhodes had been classmates 

 in a girls' seminary in Ohio. After 

 graduating Kate Townsend returned to 

 Chicago and promptly accepted Bert 

 Lester. Louise resumed a country town 

 existence at Flavins, Ind., where her 

 father owned a grain elevator, a bank, 

 a general store and a hub and spoke fac- 

 tory. His country possessions were 

 marked by white farmhouses and huge 

 red barns. Mrs. Lester once visited 

 Louise at Flavins, and when she re- 

 turned home she told fanciful stories of 

 the Rhodes possessions. 



La.st spring, while Mrs. Lester was 

 writing to Louise, coaxing her to come 

 to Chicago on a visit, Joe Barnet did a 

 very unusual thing. He wrote a letter 

 to Miss Louise Rhodes of Flavius, Ind., 

 a young woman whom he had never 

 seen. 



Mark the cunning of the scoundrel! 

 This is the way the letter ran: 



"Of course you dare not overlook my 



vast presumption in thus addressing 



.; you. One fact you must consider, how- 



