EOttof^ 



CH^*OJD ESt-^iEJ NW CJ 



He that is faittiful in that which is least, is faithful also in much.— LuKR 16:10. 



MYSELF AND MY NEIGHBORS. 



Tliinkcl li no evil.— T. CoR. 13: 5. 



ELL, friends, here it is along toward 

 llie lirst of the beautiful month of 

 Mas'. The apple-trees are in liloom, 

 tlie bees are rejoicing, and the 

 weather is so line that it seems to 

 me every boy and girl onght to be ashamed 

 of themselves if they can not rejoice also. 

 AV^e have not had a bit of frost for several 

 weeks; in fact, we liave 20(10 tomato-plants 

 growing nicely out in the held, and some of 

 them arc morethan a foot high, and covered 

 with bl()ssoms. A great many old heads are 

 shaking wisely, and they tell me I will 

 •'catch it.'' ihit I am willing to take my 

 chances. If the frost comes I will do the 

 best I can to save my plants ; and if 1 don't 

 succeed, 1 am going lo be hapi)y any way. 

 There are plenty more tine ones in the green- 

 house, for a reserve to fall back on. 



Well, it Si'ems to me the bee-friends are 

 busy and rejoicing too, for orders are coming 

 ill as briskly as we ever saw them l)eforc at 

 the Home of the IIoney-Bees ; and, as a con- 

 seciuence, great numbers of neighbors are 

 all round about me ; in fact, for a few days 

 back it has seemed as if it were my gi-eiit 

 privilege to give work to almost every one 

 who a])plied ; that is, with the usual prom- 

 ise not to drink, swear, nor use tobacco. 

 There are so many of them, tliat I have some 

 in my employ whom I could not call by 

 name if I sliould try to. This brings me to 

 what I want to say to you to-day. 

 Since we have put down the price of foun- 



dation, it has made a big boom in what we 

 call the '' wax-room.'' It is almost as full 

 as a schoolroom now, and most of the time 

 it is almost as quiet and orderly as some 

 schoolrooms. The wax-room is mostly in 

 the hands cf girls and women. Mr. C, who 

 has charge of it, says he does not believe it 

 is, as a rule, a good plan to have many small 

 boys and small gills together. They get to 

 be so bubbling over full of fun that they can 

 not attend to their work ;;s well as if the 

 boys were kept out, or in a room by them- 

 selves. With the older hands it does not 

 make so much difference^that is, when 

 they are old enough to behave themselves 

 like ladies and gentlemen. In that case, I 

 have sometimes thought that it was an ex- 

 cellent i)lan to have the sexes together. 

 Well, with the rush of business in the wax- 

 room, and the numl)er of hands employed, 

 there arc more or less complaints of mis- 

 takes, about , inferior quality of work, etc. 

 Several times customers have complained 

 that the base of the cells is not thin enough. 

 This is caused by running the machines 

 with the rolls too far apart. The other 

 evening the man wlio makes foundation- 

 inills told me that there were too many 

 liands turning the adjusting-screws to the 

 rolls. I told him I thought no one ought to 

 touch those: screws except the foreman of 

 the wax-room. lie said he had spoken to 

 him about it, l)ut that he replied something 

 like this : 



'' The girls complain that the rolls turn 

 too hard, and then they loosen the adjusting- 

 screws, because that makes the rolls ttun 



