1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



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oven. Where is the boy who does not know 

 how to '"help" in that part of it? While he 

 ate his cooky he was in the habit of sitting 

 down on a little hassock. This linie, liowever, 

 he ale his cooky standing up. The cook looked 

 around to see where his hassock was, and to 

 find out why he did not sit down as usual. It 

 could not be found. It was there a few minutes 

 before it iiad suddenly disappeared. A peculiar 

 smell, after a little, prompted them to look into 

 the oven, and there was the hassock where 

 Tom had dextrously whisked it as soon as the 

 cooKies were taken out. 



Tommy sleeps with his companion. Like 

 other boys, he does nqt always want to get up 

 in the morning. Instead of calling Tommy, as 

 your mother does, their plan of calling liim to 

 get up is to pull down the clothing until he 

 wakes; and his room mate, Lyman, oftentimes 

 performs this office. One night there was a 

 disturbance, however, and the teacher looked 

 in to see where the trouble was. Tommy was 

 giving his friend Lyman a little treat in the 

 way of retaliation by stripping off the bed- 

 blankets, sheets, and even the pillow-cases. 

 He did not seem to hold any malice, however; 

 for when his teacher told him to restore the 

 clothing, etc., he made up the bed very neatly 

 and quickly, for that was one of his accom- 

 plishments. 



Mr. Anagnos, one of the founders of the 

 school, and one of Tommy's special beneJactors, 

 one day entered the schoolroom when the 

 teachers were trying in vain to get Tom to spell 

 )tthrc(ul. He seemed utterly incapable of man- 

 laging that particular word. Mr. A. came up 

 and touched him. That is the way in which 

 friiMids make themselves known to these un- 

 fortunates. Tommy at once grasped for the 

 iluuid, and commenced feeling of the sleeve- 

 ibuttons, to see who it was. In an instant he 

 was in the arms of his benefactor. Evidently 

 roiisidering, however, that it was not just the 

 thing to break off lessons, even for a frolic, he 

 istnnched out his hand toward his teacher and 

 f^pi'Ued thread several times very plainly and 

 easily. The question arises. Could not Tommy 

 have done it all the time if he had had a mind 

 to? or did the joy occasioned by meeting a 

 dearly beloved friend stir him up to a new 

 degree of intelligence ? If we decide the latter, 

 we shall probably do it because of former ex- 

 pi'Ticnce of our own that we recall. There are 

 a ihousand things that we can do, and do 

 easily, if just the right motive be brought to 

 bear to wake us up. Sometimes it does a body 

 2;ood to get vexed just a little. Such a weapon, 

 ever, is not to be unguardedly recommend- 

 It might prove to be a dangerous-edged 



Tom had a fashion of amusing himself by 

 [Hilling the buttons oft' his clothing when he 

 iial nothing else to do. His kind teacher cured 

 Hi III of it by teaching him how to sew them on; 

 ind after he had become a little tired of the 

 a-.x of making good the consequences of his 

 jiiM-hievous habit he got over it. 



Tim's special friend, Fred, had been away 

 <ii ■^ome days. He came back: and as he too 

 ,.va> glad to see his playmate, he gave Tom a 

 3ug and kiss. Tom was upstairs making beds 

 It the time. After his friend had gone, how- 

 ever, he found it necessary to stop his work for 

 I while, while he danced up and down, spelling 

 )n^his boyish fingers the name of his playmate, 

 'Fred," •• Fred." You see, Tom is getting to 

 jea/>oiylike other boys; and even in spite of 

 lis afflictions he can dance up and down, and 

 10 the very things that other boys do, so far as 

 ,.he limited use of his faculties will permit him. 

 ; He had displeased one of his teachers by his 

 ilisobedience— probably by his stubbornness— 



and she was obliged to go away before he had 

 had time to tell her he was soiry. When she 

 came back, in ilie exuberance of his joy he 

 began spelling the names of all the objects in 

 Uie room, as cornictly as he knew how. With 

 his limited vocabulary he knew no other way 

 to express sorrow and regn-t for his bad be- 

 havior than to recite his lessons in a way he 

 was sure would plea.se h. r. Hen; again we see 

 the spirit ot the saying, ''Silver and gold have 

 1 none; but such as I have, give I unto thee." 



Tommy is very cautious. Probably sundry 

 bumps and bruises in the dark have made him 

 so For a great while he was afraid to ride in 

 a little cart tlus cliildren amused themselves 

 with. His teachers, liowever, labored to over- 

 come his unreasonable fear; and linally, when 

 lorn was really tumbled out of the cart, and 

 made haste to get up and climb in again, they 

 felt they had achieved a victory. He knows 

 the days of the week, and has a particular lik- 

 ing tor what they call - clay day." This is i he 

 day when the children are permitted to take 

 lessons in molding clay into different sha|)(!^— a 

 favorite pastime for the blind. Entering the 

 school on Friday he stood still for a few min- 

 utes, evidently thinking; finally a smile lighted 

 his face, and he spelled " apron," for that gar- 

 ment was the concomitant of his dearly beloved 

 clay-working. After he had learned what day 

 it was, he was taught to answer what to-mor- 

 row would be, and then yesterday. As this 

 was a new exercise he replied, somewhat hesi- 

 tatingly, that it was Friday. He was pleased 

 to see that he had got on to the idea; but his 

 propensity for a joke followed right on to his 

 new acquisition. In order to show the progress 

 he was making, the teacher asked him to tell 

 somebody else what day yesterday was. In- 

 stead of answering Friday, as before, he replied, 

 " Yesterday was Fred." Of course,' this was a 

 poor sort of joke; but who is there who would 

 not rejoice to see a little fun creeping in, in- 

 dicating that Tom was boyish and boylike? 



One Monday morning he would not eat his 

 breakfast, and he would not tell any one the 

 reason. Finally, when he was reciting his 

 lessons, the fact came out that he was in a pet 

 because he could not have corn bread for 

 breakfast; and then they remembered that for 

 some time previously there had been corn bread 

 on tlie table every Monday morning. Tom de- 

 cided in his own mind ihat Monday had some- 

 thing to do with corn bread, and that, accord- 

 ing to the fitness of things, that should be the 

 rule. He had got it into his head that there 

 had got to be corn bread, and so he did not -eat 

 because he did not find it. I think I have 

 known of some grown-up "Tommies" who 

 behaved a little after that fashion. Did you, 

 ray friend, ever have any experience along that 

 line? You see, he is beginning to make infer- 

 ences and draw conclusions. 



One day he had an exercise in word-lessons 

 by being asked to bring his teacher certain ob- 

 jects with which he was familiar. He enjoyed 

 the lesson very much, and was quite willing to 

 go through with it again the next day: but 

 because his teacher did not remember to call 

 for the .SYU/ic objects in the same regular order 

 as she did the day before, he was disconcerted; 

 in fact, he would not go on until the matter 

 had been carefully explained to him. 



These little details that I have gone over, 

 you may think are trilling and unimportant. 

 Some of you may ask, " Well, what is the point 

 to it, any way ? We see such things every day 

 right at home." My friend, there is to me a 

 most grand and wonderful point. In fact, it 

 has been a lesson to me such as I have seldom 

 had. Tommy is a child, and a child in great 

 alffiction; and yet with the use of all of my 



