67 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. I. 



or feeble digestion, and they may lodge in some 

 part of the digestive apparatus, as any other 

 thing might so lodge. Perhaps, also, the right 

 kind of very brisk exercise might have enabled 

 nature to dislodge the hurtful refuse. The 

 great point to me was this: Many people have 

 distressing backachi^'S. They put on plasters, 

 and take tonics and stimulants. It seemed to 

 me as if my spine were really diseased or giving 

 way, whereas the whole trouble was something 

 almost as simple as a little sand or gravel be- 

 tween your toes, only the latter comes to us 

 exterjially. where we ought to have been 

 ashamed to allow any such accumulation. In 

 the former, it was away where the scrutiny of 

 the human eye could never detect it. 



I now wish to close this paper with a descrip- 

 tion of one of the brighest and happiest experi- 

 ences that ever came in this line. You will 

 notice that it includes pretty much all I have 

 mentioned in the foregoing. Two or three 

 weeks ago I was feeling very much as I did oni> 

 year before that time— the time when I was 

 laid up with nervous malarial fever. Evm the 

 cultivator and the work in the garden did not 

 seem to meet the case. My strength was fail- 

 ing; I was getting thin (119 lbs.) and poor. 

 For the first time in my life— that is, while able 

 to be about, it seemed a task to go on foot the 

 half-mile to where our weekly prayer-meetings 

 are held, and I had stayed away for several 

 times. I feared another attack of fever. Such 

 exercise as I had taken with the cultivator was 

 almost too much for my strength, for, in fact, I 

 hadn't any strength worth speaking of. nor ap- 

 petite either. I began to pray. I plead the 

 Bible promises. I told the Lord that all evil 

 or wrong purposes or longings had been put 

 aside, and that it was that I might teach others 

 that I begged him to give me wisdom in the 

 language of our text. The answer came in a 

 very unexpected direction. Ernest has, for two 

 or three years past, been urging me to try a 

 wheel. He said it would take me off from my 

 feet, and relieve me of the burden of bearing 

 my own weight. He said it would also carry 

 me away from the factory and grounds, and 

 from business cares; it would divert my mind, 

 and give me wholesome exercise while using a 

 set of muscles that wei"e, perhaps, almost com- 

 paratively new and unused. But I objected, on 

 the ground that I was too old (.53) and stiff and 

 feeble any way, even if I knew how to use the 

 wheel. And so matters stood for a couple of 

 years. I do not just know what prompted me 

 to think of trying a wheel again during this 

 present month of August. I know I had been 

 praying a good deal; but the idea that the 

 wheel should have any association with an 

 answer to my prayer never entered my head 

 until I began to receive benefit from it. Per- 

 haps I might remark here, that, toward forty 

 years ago, my brother and I tried to build a 

 rude velocipede. Of course, it did not work; 

 but when I gave it up I declared to the rest of 

 the family that the day would come when peo- 

 ple would go faster than a horse, with a ma- 

 chine made after that fashion. Then I turned 

 my attention to roller skates, said skates being 

 manufactured by sawing little wheels from the 

 end of spools, and screwing them on to a block. 

 This only resulted, however, in bumping my 

 poor boyish nose; but when I n^linquished both 

 projects with tears in my eyes, I assured my 

 good mother that people would somi; time both 

 ride and slide on the plan I was then working 

 on. When the Scientific Atnerican. toward 

 twenty- five years ago, gave a picture of a 

 French velocipede I wrote them at once; and 

 as soon as a machine could be purchased on 

 American shores I was the happy owner of one 

 of them. This all happened before Gleanings 



was published. From this you can see that it 

 did not take very long for me to learn to run 

 the machine. The only trouble was in getting 

 on and oft'. I got oft' without very much trou- 

 ble, or. at least, tumbled off, and let the machine 

 go where it wanted to; but to get on was such 

 a task that I surely should have given it up in 

 despair had not Ernest held on, and plead and 

 entreated. While I am about it, I think I will 

 tell you plainly and fieely of my discourage- 

 ments in this line. I was weak and nervous: 

 and to think of springing so high while the 

 treacherous machine was in motion jaried on 

 my nerves to such an extent that I was really 

 afraid it would make me sick. I felt much as I 

 did when I had my last tooth pulled; and I 

 might as well confess to you, that again and 

 again I prayed the good Father to give me 

 strength and courage, and tranquility of nerves, 

 to make theeft'ort. After that brief, simple pray- 

 er I made better progress. When I tried so 

 many times that I was almost ready to give up, 

 then came the prayer, and almost immediately 

 afterward I was .seated securely, and gaining 

 confidence with every success. One day I went 

 down to see my mother, who lives half a mile 

 away. I had been feeling very badly that 

 afternoon, and had been praying with more 

 than usual earnestness. When I tried to get on 

 the wheel to come home, as the ground was 

 rough I did not get it started readily. Finally I 

 thought I would turn it in the opposite direction. 

 Stangely enough, this time I got seated, with- 

 out a bit of trouble. At the end of the road I 

 proposed to get oft' and stop; but the wheel took 

 a fashion of its own, and started off on a 

 diagonal road down a long steep hill. ''All 

 right, old fellow." said I; •' if you can't go 7ny 

 way, suppose I go yours.''' Before I reached 

 the bottom of the hill, I had learned to coast; 

 and, to my great surprise. I succeeded, without 

 very much eft'ort, in propelling it up the next 

 rise. Pretty .soon I was off in the country; and 

 with the blood tingling to the very ends of my 

 fingers and toes, skill came to me as if by in- 

 spiration. I suppose memory was beginning to 

 '"catch on," and I managed the modern wheel 

 vei'y much as" I did the velocipede so many 

 years ago. I went down to the river and back; 

 and by the time I reached home I felt more like 

 riding further than even sitting down to rest. 

 My faithful teacher (Ernest), however, insisted 

 that I should not overdo. I felt confident, how- 

 ever, that I could make a ten mile trip to some 

 scenery in our county, which I had never vis- 

 ited. On the day appointed, however, Aug. Itl, 

 my old troubles had almost all returned, with 

 some new ones. I felt sick, weak, and low- 

 spirited. I remember very distinctly how I 

 prayed as I sat on the doorstep by myself, early 

 in the morning. My feeiing was, that, if any 

 happiness or enjoyment cd^ine to me that day, 

 it would have to be something little short of a 

 miracle. Could it be possible that one feeling 

 as 1 did could receive relief simply by open-air 

 exercise? I thought of Wilson's Peak, and of 

 the horse and cultivator, as well as the wheel; 

 but I felt sure that I was not well enough for 

 any one of the three. However, I decided, 

 after breakfast, to trv a short run on the wheel, 

 and see how I felt. The first part of the jour- 

 ney was down hill; and as the morning air 

 whistled by me I began to gather strength and 

 hope. Then came the tussle of climbing hills. 

 I think I nt^ver breathed so hard, nor exerted 

 myself to the full extent of my strength, as I 

 did on that morning. But something began to 

 tell me that it was not hurting me a bit. My 

 mouth was wide open, and my lungs were ex- 

 panding wider than they had before for years. 

 In fact, it seemed as if I could feel them letting 

 themselves out and shaking out the folds as we 



