30 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



J AX. 1. 



ly she has read (tleanings and these Home 

 papers. Slie knew that the man by her father's 

 side was A. I. Root: and if my good friend W. 

 had made up his mind that he would scold lier 

 for being late. I was equally determined that 

 he should not scold a word, if I could stop it. 

 I am not naturally inclined to pusli myself for- 

 ward among strangers. It is not at all easy for 

 me, in one sense, and I am afraid it never will 

 be: yet when I can push forward for Christ's 

 sake, I hopi' I am ready and glad to do it. Yes. 

 I can look back to many times when I have 

 really enjoyed being seemingly rude, for the 

 time being, when I did it for Citrist Jesus' sake. 



Friend Wyand started, in his rapid way, to 

 the buggy a"s it rounded up to the curbstone. 

 But I can'walk fast too, and I pushed ahead of 

 him, introduced myself to his daughter before 

 lie had time to say a word, and talked so fast, 

 at the same time taking pains to stand between 

 the two, that he could not even get a word 

 in " edgewise." Perhaps he did not notice it at 

 all. May be he thought it a little strange that 

 I did not' wait to be introduced in the orthodox 

 way. But I hope that, when he sees this, he 

 will forgive rae. Yes, I am quite sure he is glad 

 now that I did just as I did: and I am sure, too. 

 that my good young friend will forgive me. I 

 am inclined to think that friend Wyand's fami- 

 ly, all of them, girls and boys, are in the habit 

 of working outdoors and indoors. I had decid- 

 ed, in my own mind, that Miss Wyand was 

 quite a pretty young woman; but as I finally 

 gave her father a chance to speak he ventured 

 just a little \\ord of remonstrance, asking her 

 why she did not get there sooner. My talk with 

 his daughter had disarmed him, and he had 

 doubtless got over most of the impatience he 

 felt, and under the circumstances he did ex- 

 ceedinglv well. I have not a word of fault to 

 find with him. mind you. for he did a good deal 

 better than I should have done. I fear. There 

 iv(ts, however, a faint shade of fault-finding in 

 his tone, and it brought a beautiful rosy spot on 

 •either cheek as his daughter replied: 



" Why, father. I hurri(^d the boys up all I pos- 

 sibly could, but I r(!ally could not make them 

 bring the horse up any quicker, and I drove 

 just as fast as ever the horse could go." 



She glanced at me as she said this, feeling the 

 same kind of pain, no doubt, that you or I 

 would if you, my friend, were found fault with 

 when you are first introduced, say, to the editor 

 of one of your family papers. We soon learned 

 that Mr. W. owned a horse that was in the hab- 

 it of making the gravel fiy, much after the dis- 

 position of its owner. W'e held our hats, and 

 clung to the buggy-seat for fear of being 

 bounced out; and when we stopped to look at 

 interesting things the horse had a habit of 

 starting without orders, as horses belonging to 

 quick, nervous people, often do have. In fact, 

 while in the zoological garden, one of our good 

 bee-friends was knocked down and run over — 

 onlv by the light buggy-wheel, however, just 

 on account of this peculiarity. Let me digress 

 enough to urge you not to permit hoi-ses to get 

 into this habit of starting until bidden. It will 

 pay you in dollars and cents to teach your 

 horse not to move until you draw up on the 

 reins, and tell him to go. Not only has money 

 been lost, but also valuable lives as well, in 

 this very way. Y'ou can teach the most spir- 

 ited horse you own to stand until you tell him 

 to go. if you will only take the pains, and you 

 will save time by it in the end. 



Friend Wyand's wonderful flow of pleasantry 

 and good nature was somewhat checked by be- 

 ing late in starting. There, again, he is just 

 like myself. A little thing of this kind will up- 

 set rae" for an hour or two unless I make a great 

 effort to overcome it. At such times I need to 



say over and over again my little prayer. 

 '■ Loi'd. iuMpl " He took us first down to the 

 wonderful Government Canal, a structure that 

 cost over two millions of dollars, made on pur- 

 pose to permit boats to go by the rapids on the 

 Mississipiji River. It has the usual arrange- 

 ment or locks, like ordinary canals, but on a 

 much grander scale. Steam-engines are em- 

 ployed to work the locks, and the machinery is 

 of the most beautiful kind. I was not only 

 gi'eatly astonished but much amused to sec 

 friend Wyand address the Government officers 

 as if they were men in his employ. In fact, I 

 rather expected to see some of them resent his 

 familiarity: but one of his comical smiles, after 

 he had given one of his peremptory commands, 

 made it all straight, and they went through all 

 the operations, and explained every tiling to me 

 in a way that made me feel still as if I were at 

 home, and among my neighbors. The Govern- 

 ment Dry-docks were a wonderful thing to me 

 — a place where they brought in great steam- 

 boats, and then let the water off so the cari)en- 

 ters could do necessary repairing. A little fur- 

 ther on. we saw some beautiful rows of straw- 

 berries, and a man at work neai' them. Fi-iend 

 Wyand made this man stop his work on the 

 other side of a field, and answer questions about 

 the strawberries, at the top of his voice. Then 

 we pulled around to friend W.'s home. He evi- 

 dently had looked forward with pleasure 

 to introducing your humble servant to the 

 different members of his family: but he was 

 somewhat vexed again to find not a soul at 

 home. It was a beautiful day for outdoor 

 work, and every one of them was busy some- 

 where. His whole premises on the top of the 

 hill show<Hl industry and hard woj-.k. He loves 

 bees, fruit, and flo\\'ers as well as the rest of us. 

 Pretty soon we stopped in front of a good-sized 

 greenhouse. He made himself at home here 

 too, and bossed the people around as if they 

 were all working for him, just as he did before. 

 I was greatly delighted to find a house heated 

 entirely by overhead steam -pipes. The person 

 in charge was a pleasant-faced woman, and I 

 could hav(^ spent an hour in talking with her 

 about plants, soil, new methods of heating, etc. 

 She said they had recently taken out the pipes 

 under the beds, and had placed them ovei'head, 

 and were much pleased with the result. 



Friend W. has taught me a useful lesson, and 

 it is this: That one may go about among 

 friends and neighbors, among business men and 

 people, even among officers of the government, 

 and may make them do every thing he asks, 

 providing he has grace enough in his heart to 

 keep up a vein of pleasantry and good nature to 

 disarm all unpleasant feeling. This man cap- 

 tivates and makes friends by a sort of droll 

 way. Perhaps he has cultivated it, and per- 

 haps it is a gift of (Jod largely— a gift that 

 many of us might have, certainly, in a much 

 larger degree if we would only strive hard for 

 it — a faculty of seeing something pleasant, per- 

 haps I miglit say in every thing, in all the du- 

 ties of every-day life. It was on this account I 

 was a little'glad to se(> him tried by the delay 

 of his horse and buggy. I did not want him to 

 have trouble, but I wanted to see how far his 

 native grace would bear him out in the hour of 

 trial. I do not know whether he ever lets his 

 temper come out. and scolds like fun. or not. I 

 am sorry to say. that, with the amount of busi- 

 ness we had on hand when I was there — that is. 

 one kind of business. I did not find out whether 

 he was a Christian or not. It may be I asked 

 him the question— I hope I did: but if I did, I 

 have forgotten what he said. It has occurred 

 to me since, though, that this good friend of 

 mine would have a wonderful power in bringing 

 souls to Christ Jesus if this special gift of his 



