glkanikgs in bee culture. 



491 



6u^ pe^Eg. 



And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the 

 ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of 

 life; and man became a living- soul.— Gen. 3:7. 



fllE above is one of my fcivoiite texts. 

 Very likely I have used it before ; but 

 it does not matter if I have. 1 like 

 the text, and I like to think of it. 

 Even if 1 am made of the dust of 

 the ground, it makes me glad to think 

 that it was God who made me— to think 

 that I came from God's hand. There is 

 much that is dusty and earthy, I grant, in 

 humanity ; but tliere is, thank God, some- 

 thing Godlike after all. Bronson Alcott, 

 wlien lie talked to our Sunday-school some 

 years ago, told the children that he had 

 sometimes thought that, when God made 

 us, he put a little pinch of himself in 

 each one of us, and that little pinch remains 

 still, even in tlie most hardened sinner. It 

 can be dug out and made to come to light, 

 if we take the right method. 



I presume that every one of my readers 

 knows how enthusiastic I have been for a 

 few years back in seeing things grow. This 

 12th day of June every thing is beautiful 

 and lovely. Our ten acres of tilled and high- 

 ly fertilized ground is radiant with different 

 forms of vegetable life. Some of the pota- 

 toes are white with blossoms. Our improved 

 squashes, under the influence of summer 

 showers and sunshine, and rich mellow soil, 

 are unfolding and spreading out to the sun 

 great leaves of wondrous beauty. Every 

 morning, noon, and night I can see God's 

 agencies have been at work. Unseen hands 

 are busy at work over these ten acres, bring- 

 ing out forms of wondrous beauty and in- 

 tricacy. Now, you may smile when I tell 

 you that, for the past ten days, I have be- 

 come so much interested in seeing some- 

 thing grow besides plants, that I don't know 

 but I am on the verge of a new hobby. 

 You need not feel troubled, however, dear 

 friends— that is, if any of you have felt 

 troubled because of so many hobbies; for if 

 God calls me there can be no danger in my 

 dropping bees, plants, and every thing else, 

 to hasten to do his bidding. We want to be 

 sure, however, in changing about from one 

 thing to another, that it is God's bidding, 

 and not some changeable, selfish freak of 

 our own. 



About two years a^fo the good people of 

 Medina thought lit to put me on the school 

 board. 1 told them they could not find a 

 busier man in the whole county, and perhaps 

 few who had more responsibilities and cares 

 on his shoulders already ; but evidently they 

 thought, as some one has said, that if you 

 want any thing done promptly and well, put 

 it in the hands of tlie busiest and hardest- 

 worked man you have in the community. 

 I told the good people I would do what I 

 coidd ; but, to tell the truth, I have not done 

 very well, and I fully expected they would 

 be glad to let me go and ])ut some better 

 man in my place. This present year it falls 

 upon me to take the oflice of president of the 

 board of education. I knew, when I was 

 constituted president, wliat the president of 



the school board ought to do, especially in re- 

 gard to visiting schools ; but, on dear me ! it 

 just seemed as if I could not leave impor- 

 tant and almost sacred duties liere to go and 

 visit the schools. 



About ten days ago somebody put into my 

 hands a little envelope, about two inches 

 long. It was in juvenile handwriting, and a 

 juvenile signed liis name to the little ei)istle 

 inside, asking me to visit their school. I 

 lost the little letter before I noticed which 

 one of the eight departments it emanated 

 from. But about half-past two on the day 

 appointed I sciaped the tliickest of the clay 

 from my boots, blacked them up a little, 

 washed my face and combed my hair, and 

 '' went to school." I made a mistake and 

 got into the wrong school— that is, if it is pos- 

 sible for the superintendent of the board to 

 make a ndstake in going into any of the 

 scliools at any time. I am now going to tell 

 you what I saw and learned in the first 

 primary department. They were having 

 exercises in mathematics — yes, mathematics 

 for children only six years old ; and not only 

 figures, but language, etiquette, and, above 

 all, sound common sense. The teacher did 

 not have any book in her hand, but the eyes 

 of every pupil were upon her. She began 

 something in this way : 



"Now, who will tell the story about the 

 bird's nest? " 



Almost every hand was raised. She final- 

 ly signified a little girl whom slie called 

 Marcia to tell it. Marcia began • 



" I saw three birds' nests in an apple-tree, 

 and in each nest were two little eggs." 

 Marcia now came to a standstill. 

 ''Very well," said the teacher. "But 

 can't you now tell us how many eggs there 

 were all together in that apple-tree? " 



Marcia twisted, and looked one way and 

 then another, but did not seem equal to the 

 task. After Miss Smith had waited, as it 

 seemed to me, a good while, instead of an- 

 swering the question and telling Marcia 

 there were six eggs all together she told her 

 she guessed she would have to go up to the 

 blackboard and make a picture of the three 

 nests, telling her to put two eggs in each 

 nest, and then I understood for the first 

 time why such a great variety of pictures 

 were on the blackboard and about the room. 

 I mentally decided that Marcia was quite 

 unequal to the task of making any thing 

 like a bird's nest, to say nothing of eggs in- 

 side ; but to my surprise she made three 

 handsome nests, eggs and all, a good deal 

 better than I could have done it myself. 

 While Marcia was making her drawings. 

 Miss Smith asked the school a multitude of 

 questions, such as, " What is the half of 12? 

 half of 10? half of 0? " and so on. These were 

 all answered promptly, until she bade them 

 all look out for a hard one. The hard one 

 was, " What is the half of 5? " A little girl 

 who raised her hand answered t-iro. Now, 

 note the teacher's method. She reached 

 behind her, and from some shelves contain- 

 ing a great variety of things to interest ju- 

 veniles she selected five slender sticks. 

 These were handed to Bertha, asking her to 

 count them. She promptly reported there 

 were exactly five sticks. " Now," said Miss 



