{jy2 



glea:niwgs in hee culture. 



Dec. 



seemed to think, that, because the hidy 

 smiled, it gave tliem permission to go on. 

 Perhaps yoa may ask v.iiy I did not use my 

 inlhience," or what skill I possess under such 

 circumstances, to get the boys on to some 

 other topic. Well, my friends, I studied 

 hard, and prayed hard, but I did not see any 

 opening for interruption, without having 

 them think I was a sort of crank, or eccen- 

 tric personage, who wanted to boast of his 

 own goodness and Christianity. f^ven 

 though this class of boys are ct>arse and low- 

 lived in their ways and talks, they are keen 

 enough as a rule, and bright enough, to see 

 the consistency of things, and can read a 

 man pretty thoroughly. ]jy the time the 

 train came I had not scraped up grace 

 enough to say any thing at all for the Master. 

 I do not mean that I did just right, how- 

 ever, for my conscience upbraided me for 

 not being a more faithful witness. I hardly 

 need tell you, that, as a rule, the brakesmen, 

 and the men who are employed to load and 

 unload freight, are a rough, drinking, and 

 swearing class, and I fully expected to find 

 such for my companions in the caboose car. 

 But I decided that I would have a little 

 more courage, and at least make an effort to 

 win these men just a little during my 25- 

 mile trip in the caboose car. The car was 

 divided into two apartments by a sort of 

 partition in the middle. Imagine my sur- 

 prise to see, hanging over the doorway be- 

 tween the two apartments, a little frame in 

 which was worked, in perforated paper, the 

 words, '' In God We Trust.'' As a rule, 

 these caboose cars are embellished with \nc- 

 tures that the railroad nipn manage to pick 

 up from illustrated newspapers, or the lit- 

 erature of the day, and I had made up my 

 mind that the prints that adorned these 

 walls were probably, many of them at least, 

 (jupstionable in their moral tendencies. Im- 

 agine my surprise to find they were not only 

 beautiful, but chaste and pure, every one 

 of them ; and many of them had beautiful 

 appropriate texts just under them. The 

 occupants of the caboose car were out in the 

 severe cold weather, moving the cars from 

 one track to another, so I was alone for 

 quite a time. When they had got by the 

 station, and rested enough so they felt like 

 talking, I began to get acquainted. Finally 

 I motioned toward the motto, and com- 

 menced something as follows ? 



'• My friend, is it true that you are sailing 

 under these colors?" 



He replied, modestly, " Mr. Root, 1 hope 

 it is true that I am trying to live according 

 to that text.'' 



" Then you are a professor of religion, are 

 you not V " 



" Yes, sir. 1 have been for several years a 

 member of the Disciple Church at Lorain. *' 



" And you manage to hang to it, even if 

 you are a railroad manV 



I smiled as I caught his eye when 1 made 

 the remark. He nodded, as he replied, with 

 a smile ; and then I mentioned that I had 

 been pained to notice the swearing and in- 

 temperance that were so often connected 

 with his line of business. He replied, "I 

 know just how that is, Mr. Root; but no- 

 body has ever sworn at me since T became a 



Christian, and I thank God that I have nev- 

 er sworn at anybody else." 



One of his boys, who sat near me, looked 

 up from a newspaper he was reading, and 

 smiled in a way that seemed to say that he, 

 too, felt proud of the example this train was 

 setting for others on that road. We had 

 quite a long talk. This man not only knew 

 Fred, whom my older readers remember, 

 but he was on tiie train with him at the time 

 of Fred's death. He and Fred used to at- 

 tend the meetings at Lorain, without doubt, 

 for several told me, shortly before his sudden 

 death, that they had been having excellent 

 revival meetings there, and that he, with 

 some other railroad hands, had been attend- 

 ing. From what this man said of Fred, I 

 can readily imagine that Fred's intluence 

 might have had a great deal to do with what 

 I have just been telling you, for my compan- 

 ion was not a Christian when Fred met his 

 death. How often these things come up! 

 Is it not really and wonderfully true, that 

 bread cast upon the waters does come back 

 after many days? 



As we came up to tlie station I told my 

 new friend how rejoiced I was to find that I 

 could think that, hereafter, I had a neighbor 

 over on one of the coal-trains that pass us 

 daily ; and not only a brother, but really and 

 truly a brother in Christ Jesus, even though 

 he belonged to one denomination and I an- 

 other. 



During our talk he mentioned to me that 

 a station agent on a road at a town a little 

 below Medina had started out. a few months 

 ago, to follow the Savior. He made hard 

 work of it, however, and after a few months 

 he announced to the friend with whom I had 

 been talking, that he did not see how it was 

 possible for a railroad man to be a Christian, 

 and so he gave it up. He did not give up 

 being a railroad man, but he gave up trying 

 to be a Christian, and pretty soon the com- 

 pany gave luin up. So the result was, at 

 least for the time being, that he was not a 

 railroad man nor a Christian either. May 

 God help the poor mistaken brother, wher- 

 ever he may be now ! 



But whosoever shall deny me before men, him 

 will I also deny before my Father which is in heav- 

 en.— Matt. 10: 3;5. 



ARTHUR'S BEES. 



A Story for Boys. 



BY MliS. CASTELL,A AVHITMAN. 



Concluded. 

 T HAVE before staled, that this family took great 

 £|f pleasure in caring for bees in the past; but it 

 ^i really seemed as if they enjoyed it far more the 

 ^■*- ])resent season; and if ever a plowboy welcom- 

 ed the sound of the horn, which was the signal 

 that the bees had swarmed, it was Arthur. Well do 1 

 remember one warm summer morning, after they 

 had hived one swarm, as his father had again start- 

 ed to his work, that he said, "If any more come out, 

 call ' whoopy." " He had gone but a few rods when 

 he heard " whoopj- ! " from the apiary. He could 

 scai'cely believe it real; but the issuing swarm soon 

 convinced him, and the children enjoyed the joke 

 very much. 



