GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUBE. 



'M) 



WHAT TO DO, AND HOW TO BE HAPPY WHILE DOINO IT. 



Continued from Feb. 1. 

 CHAPTER XLVIII. 



Let everything be done decently and in order.— T. Cor. 14:40. 



Perhaps I have used this text a good many 

 times ; but even if I liave, as 1 approach 

 the close of my book I feel the ne'ed of it 

 more than almost any thing else. In fact, 

 it requires more hard study and brainwork 

 to keep things decent and in order than in 

 almost any one tiling about our work. Of 

 late, our boys have a fashion of sweeping 

 out and brushing out the greenhouse every 

 night, just before they finish their work ; or, 

 at least they do it unless something extra- 

 ordinary turns up. I do not know whether 

 they have learned that it always makes me 

 look pleasant and happy to see the paths 

 nicely swept up, and all rubbish brushed 

 carefully out of the way, or not ; but it 

 certainly does make all the difference in the 

 world to me. In fact, there is something 

 fascinating to me about neatly swept earth 

 or walks where many feet travel. I can 

 remember, years ago, when spring time 

 came and the ground began to dry up, that 

 we used to rake up the chips and sweep 

 the chip-yard. The paths around the house 

 were also swept with a broom. I do not 

 know just why it is, but I love to see traces 

 of a broom. It looks as if somebody lived 

 there ; and it also tells me that this '' some- 

 body " is one who loves order and decency — 

 one who has high aspirations in his or her 

 heart ; and if I should say it seems to tell 

 me of a heart that loves God, I do not know 

 that it would be very far out of the way 

 after all; for everybody assents to the 

 proverb, that " cleanliness is next to god- 

 liness." We must have paths, not only 

 around the house, but through the garden, 

 to the barn and other out-buildings ; and I 

 do love to see these paths kept neat and 

 tidy ; and for this purpose of tidying up I 

 would have convenient tools — a nice garden- 

 rake, a couple of old stiff Ijrooms, a sharp 

 hoe, and a sickle ; yes, and a market-basket 

 to carry the rubbish to tlie stove, instead of 

 dumping it out into the streets. Sweep up, 

 slick up, make the ground smooth and neat, 

 outside of the gate as well as inside. Make 

 every tiling about your premises, the side of 

 the road adjoining your land, look neat and 

 tidy and attractive. I have sometimes 

 thought that people who have little homes, 

 and a wee bit of land, ought to be happy, be- 

 cause it is not so much of a task for them to 



keep every thing neat. I wonder if real good 

 people are not always neat. 



At several places in my book I have 

 spoken about poultry. Some way it seems 

 to me as if poultry are more hopelessly de- 

 praved in regard to this matter of neatness 

 than any thing else in animated nature. 

 Who would think it possible that so much 

 discord, disorder, and unsightliness could 

 be produced in one short hour, as may be 

 done by a single old lien and chickens V I have 

 spent some money in having nice neat poul- 

 try-houses, with glass sash over them ; but 

 it has always seemed as though their first 

 desire were to destroy and tear up what 

 they can not mar and deface and make un- 

 sightly and disgusting by their everlasting 

 scratching ; and they manage to disfigure 

 things further by their awfully depraved 

 and heedless fashion of scattering droppings. 

 Sometimes I pick up an old Brahma hen 

 and give her a shake, with an admonition 

 something like the following: "Why, you 

 miserable good-for-nothing biddy, haven't 

 you any sense about the fitness of things nt 

 all? and have you no small grain iw your 

 little head, of a love for neatness and order V 

 Just see what work you have made with 

 your new poultry-house, and these nice new 

 feeding and watering arrangements which I 

 have provided for you." 



Biddie does not seem to be hurt at all by 

 my sharp reproof ; in fact, she sings a small 

 song in an indifferent, good-natured sort of 

 way, as if to say, " Why, everything is all 

 right, so far as I can see. 1 don't see any 

 thing to be unhappy about, or to make a 

 fuss about." A pig is certainly more dis- 

 criminating in the way of neatness and pro- 

 priety than a cliicken. 



Well, this matter' of keeping things neat 

 in the poultry-house has been much on my 

 mind. One of the best things to make hens 

 lay is boiled beans ; and as we sell a great 

 many beans on the market wagon, we have 

 more or less culled beans all tlie wliile, for 

 we never think of selling beans until they 

 are hand-picked and ready for the table. 

 Well, these culled beans are boiled, and 

 carried out hot to the poultry. We used to 

 feed them in a tin pan ; but some of the 

 biddies would set their nasty feet right into 

 the feed, in a very little time. Poultry 



