411' 



GLEANINGS iN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



easier." Of comse, I ^vas quite veliemeiit 

 about the matter, and I declared if we 

 couldn't lind some way to make tlie girls 

 obey orders it would be funny. Next day a 

 piece of foundation oame by "mail, the letter 

 saying that a ten-pound box we had just 

 sent was all like it, and that he couldn't use 

 it at all, because it was too thick at the l)ot- 

 tom. I took the letter and started for the 

 wax-room, with a determination to straight- 

 en things up tliorovyJth/, When I got down 

 one pair of stairs, ssunething began to say, 

 " Be careful, Mr. Boot. Bemember what 

 you profess, and bear in mind that the sav- 

 ing of souls is a thousand times more im- 

 portant than having foundation just as it 

 ought to be, even though it is, witliout 

 question, your diUy to be faithful and lion- 

 est to those who send you their money.'' 



In answer to the above, I thought some- 

 thing like this : 



" Yes, this is all true ; but this is a seri- 

 ous matter, and one tliat has come up over 

 and over again, almost every season, and it 

 needs to be straightened up decidedly.'' 



The still small voice ventured, as I was 

 going down the second pair of stairs, some- 

 thing like this : 



'' Well, in any case will it not be better to 

 be very gentle, and find out first whether 

 there is not some mistake about itV" 



Iliad been taught by so many, nuovy cases 

 similar to the above, that it is almiys safe to 

 be very mild and gentle, that I concluded 

 I would, although 1 didn't feel like it. I 

 asked the foreman of the room about it, and 

 he laughed a little, but said that at least one 

 of the charges was a mistake, lie didn't 

 say that lie couldn't mal-e the girls stop 

 turning the adjusting-screws. He is a good 

 Christian man, and, seeing by my face that 

 1 was disposed to be gentle and kind, lie 

 suggested that I should go and talk with tiie 

 girls about it. Just now I want to confess, 

 that, since my health has been failing, I 

 have not been in the wax-room very much, 

 and perhaps the same is true of a good many 

 other rooms. As soon as I came among 

 them and saw tlie crowd of anxious faces, 

 many of them being comparatively new to 

 me, I felt ashamed of myself right away. I 

 pleasantly asked them some questions about 

 making the foundation thin ; and when I 

 reassured them so they could ttrik freely, I 

 discovered that they had been having a good 

 deal of trouble and worry just because tliey 

 • could not get foundation to come off the rolls 

 without tearing, and have it as thin as they 

 knew we wanted it. One of them said, 

 " Why, Mr. Boot, we have wasted so much 

 time in trying to get the wax to come off 

 without tearing, from this little mill, that 

 we really felt as if we must do something to 

 prevent robbing you by charging for our 

 time wlien we accomplished nothing. By 

 turning tiie screws up a very little we could 

 make it come off nicely. See. Don't you 

 call this sheet pretty fairV 



Well, it was "pretty fair," but not quite 

 what many of our customers would like, in 

 the way of "a thin base. My informant add- 

 ed : " But, Mr. Boot, as soon as we got this 

 last mill " (we had that day been obliged to 

 add still another mill to keep up with orders, 



and tills last was one of our finest brand-new 

 ones) ''we have no trouble in making beau- 

 tiful foundation. Just see what nice work 

 they are doing with it.'' 



So you see, dear friends, that the trouble 

 was not witli the girls at all, and it was not 

 with the foreman ; but it came from a mill 

 that sometimes had a way of acting badly. 

 May be you have seen machinery given to 

 such tricks. I replied that they should liave 

 the nicest mills that could be made, and 

 plenty of them too, for we could not afford 

 to waste time on any thing short of the best. 



Now, then, what a sad, sad thing it would 

 have been had I been hasty, and gone in 

 among that anxious little crowd, and scold- 

 ed and found fault when they were doing 

 the very best they could, and were worried 

 and troubled because they could not do any 

 better. Wliy, it would have been a cruel, 

 cruelihing. And suppose one of them should 

 have felt in her heart (for I am sure she 

 would never have spoken it) " That Mr. 

 Boot, who talks so much in the prayer-meet- 

 ing, and writes such nice things in his bee- 

 journal, is, after all, a cross, hasty, and un- 

 reasonable man." As I think of it, I can 

 only say over and over again in my heart, 

 " Thank God, thank God for the promptings 

 of his holy Spirit that bade me be gentle and 

 charitable while I was going down those two 

 flights of stairs." Wliy, when I look into 

 my own heart, and see the great heaps of un- 

 charitable feelings that lurk there, ready to 

 burst forth, and ready to jump at conclu- 

 sions upon the slightest pretext — ready to 

 imagine that everybody is evil, and lacking 

 in conscience and ti-uthi'ulness, it appalls me. 

 May God have mercy on me a sinner; and 

 may liis holy name be praised that he has 

 taught me to hold on, and to put a check 

 on these feelings, that they may not come 

 out and do liarm ; and may ids great love so 

 till my lieart that there may be no room for 

 even uncharitable thoughts. May kindness 

 and love toward all humanity, toward the 

 stranger within our gates, as well as those 

 who have known me intimately and well, 

 help me to remember tlie little text at the 

 head of our chapter, " Thinktth no evil." 



FROM JAPAN TO PENNSYLVANIA. 



INTERESTING LETTER OF THE JOURNEY, BY 

 THE SAME I^ITTLE GIRL WHO TOf-U US OF 

 .JAPAN TWO YEARS AGO. 



jr^EAR MR. ROOT:— What do you think has bc- 

 A c| come of jour j'oung Japanese (?) friend? or 

 ll>)l have you given the matter much thought? 

 '■^^ I liad intended to write to you of cur expect- 

 ed departure from this "Sunrise kingdom," 

 but on account of being so busy with our prepara- 

 tions for the same I was unable to do so; and when 

 we got here I entered school, which, thougli quite 

 novel, was equally a busy experience. As we are 

 having a week of vaealion at present, I have taken 

 this lainj^ afternoon to write to mj' old friends of 

 the adventures T have experienced since leaving 

 Japan last October. 



Our voyage, which lasted about 17'e days, was 

 delightful— the last day especially being interesting, 

 on account of the shoals of porpoises which raced 

 with the ship, the groups of whales spouting in the 



