G64 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



AttG. 



for some all-wise purpose, he has now and 

 then clothed the human form divine with 

 wondrous beauty? And when this beauty 

 is accompanied l)y unusual intelligence, 

 ought v\-(' not to paiise and wonder, as well 

 as give him thanks? Is it wrong to admire 

 beauty? Surely not, providing that, while 

 we admire, no trace of any feeling springs 

 lip that will in the least transgress tlie com- 

 mand, " Thou Shalt not covet." Beauty is a 

 (hmgerous gift, and so is wealth ; and, my 

 friends, let us pray that ( iod may help us so to 

 lear our children that they may safely be iu- 

 1 rusted with wealtli as well as beauty ; that 

 hotii sexes may consider all these gifts as 

 coming from him, and be enabled to use 

 tiiem for his honor and his glory, and to lay 

 them at the Savior's feet. I did not want to 

 seem rude, so of course I was bound in cour- 

 tesy to give these new neighbors of mine 

 only a passing glance. They were utter 

 strangers to me, nnd I do not think any 

 thought entered my mind of wishing for 

 even an acquaintance. They moved in one 

 sphere of life and I in another. ( Jod wishes 

 me to perform my allotted work as he wishes 

 them with their beautiful turnout to per- 

 form their allotted work in life. It was not in 

 my province to recognize their existence by 

 word or action, unless by the brief glaiice I 

 told yon of; but it teas in my province to be 

 working for the Master, even at that very 

 moment, and among these very neighbors, 

 too. whom I had found so far away from my 

 own home. Do yon ask why? Listen : 



While these thoughts were passing in my 

 mind, the street-car stopped. As I glanced 

 toward the platform I guessed the neighbors 

 who stood there were a trio of young moth- 

 ers with their home treasures. There were 

 three of the mothers, and they had three or 

 four of these treasures apiece ; and said 

 treasures were all jubilant at the idea of rid- 

 ing on a street-car. They had got on their 

 Sunday best, and w-ere sweet and clean and 

 bright and happy. As there were but few 

 passengers, eacli little one was permitted to 

 have a seat and plenty of room to feel happy. 

 As they took their places I gave them a wel- 

 come, and remarked that there were almost 

 enough to start a Sunday-school. I could at 

 once see by the looks that were exchanged 

 how many of our passengers were interested 

 in Sunday-school work. The car stops again, 

 and a big lady looks with dismay at the pros- 

 pect of no seat l)ecause they are all occupied 

 by the prattling juveniles. The conductor 

 finally remarks, "Here, you youngsters will 

 have to stand up, some of yon."' Three pairs 

 of fat chubby legs slid off to make room for 

 the lady. I 'supposed she would, of course, 

 take two of them in her lap while she made 

 room for the third; but she did nothing of 

 the sort. Even the sad and disappointed 

 faces that were occasionally turned iip to- 

 ward her made no impression on her hard 

 heart. Finally a curly - headed little boy 

 about the size of Iluber began to cry because 

 he could not sit down. His mother by my 

 side had one child already in her lap, and so 

 I proposed to take him. She said he was 

 quite bashful, and she was afraid he would 

 not let me. I felt sure, however, I could 

 make myself agreeable, and I did ; and by 



the time he was contentedly sitting on my 

 knee, some other passenger" took the hint 

 and took one, and then the big lady volun- 

 teered to hold the remaining one. The little 

 fellow was not so easily mollified. He sat 

 on the extreme edge of the lady's knee, and 

 hung his head in a sort of pout. Once in a 

 while he cautiously turned his head enough 

 to get a brief glimpse of said lady's face. It 

 did not seem to reassure him, however, very 

 much. 



The shades of night are now^ dropping over 

 us, and the little one has laid his curly head 

 over on my shoulder, and gone to sleep. Por 

 fear he may take cold, the mother throws a 

 light shawl about him. Her accent indicat- 

 ed German origin ; and as I glanced from 

 the little one's black curly head to the moth- 

 er's curly head, almost like it, I became sat- 

 isfied that at least part of the group had Afri- 

 can blood in their veins. I was perhaps hold- 

 ing to my breast a little curly-pated boy-baby 

 with negro blood in his veins. Well, what 

 did it matter? Even if the parents have at 

 some time in their lives done wrong, surely 

 there was no wrong in this little one's heart, 

 and who could think of blaming him for the 

 existing state of affairs ? My little friends, 

 what Scripture text do you think came into 

 my mind ? " Suffer little children to come 

 unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is 

 the kingdom of heaven," Jesus said. He did 

 not say a word about white children, Indian 

 children, or negro children ; and if he did 

 not, why should I ? and I decided in a mo- 

 ment that I was doing the work he had 

 planned for me to do, and I felt happy in do- 

 ing it. 



Two days before, during the stage-ride 

 from Lawson, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y.. to 

 Versailles, I i^assed through what is called 

 the Indian lleservation. Many thousand 

 Indians of different tiibes from the State of 

 New York have a tract of land allotted to 

 them. They have farms, cultivate the soil, 

 and raise ci'ops ; they also have schools and 

 churches. ^Vhen I was stopping at the sta- 

 tion, a wagonload of them came to the store 

 to trade, bringing in led raspberries picked 

 in the woods and fields. They were intelli- 

 gent, and looked and acted very much like 

 white men and v.omen. The young moth- 

 ers had their little ones along witli them. 

 The children weie dressed prettily, and their 

 mothers seemed as anxious to "have them 

 behave themselves with pi-opriety as any of 

 our white mothers. The loungers around 

 the village store said hard and micharitable 

 things about these people, especially of the 

 mothers; but I am sure it is certainly not 

 all true. ^Nly heart warmed toward the little 

 ones, and I longed to see them brought into 

 the Sunday-schools, and taught of Jesus 

 their great "friend. The driver told us that 

 many of the older people still hold to their 

 pagan supei'stitions, and that some of them 

 still kept up the time-honored ceremony of 

 something about biu'uing a white dog. He 

 said the only hope seemed to be in educating 

 the children. He added, also, that deprav- 

 ed and dissolute white men were doing more 

 harm in forcing tliemselves among them 

 than the U. S. government and Christian 

 people could do good. In our text the ques- 



