1807 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



319 



look, coming glinting over tne inarsn- 

 es. " 



"But they might miss us," she said, 

 turning her face quickly toward me. I 

 saw the gleam of her ej-es and the oval 

 shadow of her face, and all at once I 

 realized that there was only one thing 

 I could do at that precise moment iu my 

 life. I stooped down and kissed her. 



"Forgive me for that as well, if you 

 can," I said. "It means that 1 love 

 you. I suppose now I have trespassed 

 beyond all hope?" 



For a moment she was quite still, 

 and I cursed myself for such blind pre- 

 cipitation, hut the circumstances and 

 the time aud place had all forced me to 

 this inevitable result. 



"You think," she said, after thin 

 pause, "that you may as well pile uf 

 all your offenses at once and be forgivei; 

 or condemned on all counts at on«i 

 time?" 



"Precisely," I said. "I am entirely 

 in your hands." 



"I will forgive you, " she said very 

 sweetly, "when you have found the 

 path." 



"It's a bargain, then," I said. I took 

 a step forward aud brought my foot 

 sharply against something white that 

 stood a few inches above the ground. 



"Why," I cried, bending to examine 

 it, "this must be the broken post that 

 Jim told me to look out for. What a 

 close observer your brother is! This is 

 the path that leads straight for home." 



"You knew it all the time," she said 

 reproachfully. 



"No," I said. "I assure you that I 

 had no idea of it. We shall be iu just 

 as the rescue party is preparing to set 

 out." I turned to her aud held out my 

 hands. "I claim your forgiveness," I 

 said. 



And she forgave me. — Black and 

 White. 



Innocuous Vanity. 



As gold is never put into circulation 

 without some alloy, so perhaps for this 

 world's use some alloy is needed in the 

 gold of character. The only questions are 

 what alloy and how much? I shall try to 

 answer the question as to kind and 

 leave to individual discretion the ques- 

 tion as to quantity. 



A great actor once said that all men 

 have vanity, but some conceal it mere 



Buccessfully than others. If vanity be a 

 universal trait, we may take it as 

 that alloy which is necessary to our ac- 

 tive aud circulating usefulness. 



It i>5 decried by all moralists, preached 

 against iu all pulpits, and everywhere 

 believed to be as undesirable as it is 

 universal. Nevertheless, iu youth at 

 least, a certain degree of it may be 

 necessary. 



Vanity is like the kindly cloud which 

 shelters us from tlie all piercing and 

 too brilliant sun of truth, for it may be 

 doubted whether any of us can bear the 

 truth unveiled. The melancholy Dane 

 who had revealed to him unqualified 

 truth, both as regards this life and the 

 next, was not by that revelation incited 

 to action. Hamlet found the truth with- 

 ering, not stimulating; it paralyzed 

 rather than nerved. And it may be so 

 with all truth. Most of us are ordinary 

 oeople, but happily mo.st of us do not 

 ind this (.nt, at least not iu our first 

 •outh. — Lij. y.ini^ott'*. 



Settling a Bet. 



The quiet of the room in which the 

 answers to queries editor sat was dis- 

 turbed by the entrance of two half 

 grown boys. 



One of them pulled off his hat and 

 addressed him: 



' 'Me and this feller have made abet, " 

 he said, "and we've agreed to leave it 

 to you. He bets that if all the turkeys 

 that was ett last Christmas was placed 

 in a line they would rea<3h around the 

 world, aud I bet they wouldn't. Who's 

 lost?" 



"You have, my son," answered the 

 man in the chair. "They might be 

 placed a mile apart and they would still 

 be in a line, you know. " 



As they turned and went out of the 

 foom the boy who had acted as spokes- 

 man was seen to hand a small coin over , 

 to the other with great reluctance, and 

 iistinctiy heard to say: 



"Well, 1 can lick you, anyhow." 



"Bet you a nickel on that, too," re- 

 plied the ot her boy. — Chica go Tribune. 



,f hile strolling in the neighborhood 

 of Bruuton, England, a short time ago, 

 a tourist noticed suspended on the 

 branches of a tree an old paint can of 

 medium size. On making an examina- 

 tion he found that the can contained the 

 nest of a bouse sparrov,', with young. 



