500 



GLEANINGS IN I3EE CULTURE. 



June 



whole nail of my great-toe. It was so thick 

 and heavy and stout, that, only a tew weeks 

 before, it had taken almost ail my strength 

 to pare it off with my big pocket-knife. 

 What should make it tumble off loose ? I 

 glanced down at my toe, but it seemed all 

 right, and it did not seem to have lost any 

 nail at all. On more carefid inspection, 

 however, I found that a new nail had grown 

 under the old one. Wlien old Dame Nature 

 got it finished all complete, she gave notice 

 to let the old nail slide, for it was not longer 

 wanted. I told the circumstance to the 

 family, and asked if any one had ever lieard 

 of a toe-nail dropping off that way. No one 

 had heard of such a thing. My wife sug- 

 gested that my toe had been bruised. I de- 

 clared it liad not, for I should have known it. 

 Finally, I remembered that, a few months 

 before, this nail had persisted so obstinately 

 in running its corners down into the toe, 

 that I decided I would cure it so that it 

 would stay cured for quite a spell. I took a 

 file from the counter store, and filed the 

 middle of the nail until it began to show 

 blood from the flesh beneath. Now, I knew 

 by experience that old Dame Nature, in 

 alarm at finding a tender spot without its 

 natural horny covering, would draw in the 

 covering of the nail, attempting to close up 

 the thin place that I had almost filed 

 through. The file cut so nuich faster than I 

 expected, that I had cut pretty deep before 

 I knew it. Some such spirit or principle 

 seems to pervade the builders or gatherers 

 of a bee hive. This spirit is unanimous. If 

 a comb breaks down and falls on to the bot- 

 tom-board, they s?em to agree at once that 

 the first thing to do is to take all the honey 

 out of it and store it somewhere else. Then 

 they fix it up, according to the best of their 

 judgment. If you crack a comb in a frame 

 in your manipulations, you may tliink that, 

 if you put it back in the hive, the bees will 

 mend the crack. So they will ; but they first 

 take every drop of honey from every cell along 

 the sides of the break. Then they neatly 

 join the broken edges until the conib is en- 

 tire, and as solid as it ever was ; and then, 

 and not until then, they put back the honey. 

 If you will look into the hive and watch 

 them you will find the process is in many 

 respects strikingly like the way in which 

 nature mends a wound or a Ix'oken bone in 

 a living animal. She clears every thing out 

 of the way a great deal as the boys have been 

 clearing away the lumber-piles,' stones, and 

 rubbish, preparatory to building our new 

 factory. Then she brings in material to knit 

 or weave together the broken tissues and the 

 fracture in the broken bone, just as I expect- 

 ed the coi'ners of the nail to draw up ; in 

 fact, the spot where I filed it down so thin 

 soon became a little puckered, or crimped, 

 and the nail stopped growing in from that 

 time forward. 



Now let me digress a little once more, 

 and I shall have the foundation laid for my 

 talk to-day about my neighbors. Did yoii 

 ever notice the bees in a hivey If a young 

 one is hatched out that is sickly or imper- 

 fect, they tumble him outdoors as so much 

 rubbish, as much as to say, "We have no use 

 for any thing except good, healthy, perfect 



bees. Cripples and deformities go by the 

 board." An old bee that has worn himself 

 out with hard labor is treated much in the 

 same way. The same way with the bee that 

 has got the nameless bee-disease, the kind 

 that are emaciated and shining black, and 

 that jerk and twitch. May be you have seen 

 them. The healthy bees catch on lo them 

 and drag them out on to the grass. I do not 

 know whether the be(s liold a consultation 

 to decide how badly a bee must be afflicted 

 to be hoisted out or not, but there seems to 

 be a sort of method about it. A few years 

 ago people used to say the queen directed all 

 these movements, biit we know it is not so. 

 The bridges across the torn and lacerated 

 muscles, or lean meat, are united as ]ieatly 

 as the bees unite the broken honey-comb. 

 Finally the surface of the wound is covered 

 with the different layers of the cuticle, or 

 skin. Even the lines formed by the pores 

 on the inside of the hand all match each 

 other in regular order, after the wound is 

 nicely healed over. If the wound is on the 

 head, in due time new hair grows out. 



Now, dear friends, who or what is it that 

 plans this and decides just how it shall be 

 done? In other Mords, who was it, or what 

 principle was it, in my flesh and blood that 

 Avas displeased because I filed that old toe- 

 nail so thin? It was not myself, because I 

 knew absolutely nothing about.it. Months 

 ago these invisible forces in my body decided 

 to reject that mutilated toe-nail and put in a 

 brand-new one. They did not consult me 

 nor counsel with me, for I was a very aston- 

 ished individual when that great thick 

 tough horny toe-nail that I had whittled at 

 for so many years rattled down on the floor. 

 Some principle that I am entirely ignorant 

 of has been planning and Avorking ail these 

 weeks for my best good ; yes, and so solici- 

 tous is that principle, or presence, if you 

 choose, for the well-being of my body, that 

 not even a toe-nail was overlooked. This 

 invisible presence, if I may so term it, or 

 this neighbor of mine, that is living within 

 me and for me, has been looking my bodily 

 frame all over carefully, day by day, plan- 

 ning for and mending breaks and weak 

 points. Is it not wonderful? Come to 

 think of it, the Bible says that even the very 

 hairs of our head are numbered. Just think 

 of the earnest and strenuous efforts that 

 this presence, or principle, in us all is mak- 

 ing to keep our bodies in health. If we by 

 mistake drink poison, it is the same princi- 

 ple that sets us to vomiting, and hoists out 

 the enemy. 



Years ago, one morning when I was dress- 

 ing I felt a sore place on my side. As I ex- 

 amined it carefully to see how it came about 

 I told my Avife it actually seemed as if there 

 were a pocket-knife under the skin of my 

 body. Finally the sore spot came to a head 

 at one end, and out stuck a piece of steel. 

 In surprise I got hold of it and pulled it out, 

 and it Avas a long sharp needle. The only 

 explanation any one could give Avas, that I 

 swalloAved it years before ; and this invisi- 

 ble and unknown neighbor of mine had been 

 working and planning hard to get that dan- 

 gerous foreign body out of my system. It 

 had doubtless |)assed through" the stomach 



