GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jtxlt 1. 



And a man's foes shall be theyfof his own house- 

 hold.-MATT. 10:36. 



Din my last I told you that in my trip from 

 Bannock to Barnesville I met with about the 

 usual number of adventures, and I want to tell 

 you something more about it. When i got off 

 at Bannock Station I found the pike without 

 any trouble, and started off in a southerly di- 

 rection. It was sprinkling just a little at the 

 time; but I always enjoy a sprinkle that will 

 lay the dust; and when I am on a stone or 

 graveled pike, so far as J am concerned I do not 

 mind quite a little shower. Mrs. Root does, 

 however, and she always objects to my riding 

 in the rain unless I have on some old clothing 

 that is of no account; but with this old clothing 

 I am not presentable before strangers. Well, 

 the gentle sprinkle changed to a pretty smart 

 rain after I had gone a mile or two; and in- 

 looking about for shelter I discovered a large 

 wide-open gate with a graveled drive that led 

 up among beautiful flowers and shrubbery; 

 yes, and in the midst of the shrubbery was a 

 fountain playing. Of course, the summer 

 shower made every thing look still more lovely; 

 and the beautiful lawns spreading out on either 

 side made me wonder for a time if I had not 

 alighted upon enchanted ground. Come to 

 think of it, I think there was some enchant- 

 ment about the place. Now, do not look dis- 

 gusted when I tell you that I soon discovered I 

 had wheele,d into the open gates of the Belmont 

 Co. infirmary. It is a beautiful place, any way, 

 and does credit to the people of that county. 

 After I had had a pleasant chat with the gen- 

 tlemanly superintendent the shower abated, 

 and I took another graveled driveway out to 

 the main road again. When I came into the 

 grounds I was well satisfied that the main road 

 or pike ran south or pretty nearly so. It might 

 have been somewhat southwest. When I got 

 on to the same road again (out of the "en- 

 chanted" ground) it seemed to be going west- 

 ward; and by the time I had got to the bottom 

 of the long hill, I was going just about north, 

 as it seemed to me; and nere the pike from 

 Bannock struck the national pike just as I had 

 been led to think it would; but it did not occur 

 to me at the time that it was a little strange 

 that I should come into the national pike from 

 the south side instead of the north. Never 

 mind; here was the pike, sure enough, and, no 

 matter how I got there, the thing to do was to 

 turn westward to Barnesville, and this I pro- 

 ceeded to do, feeling as happy as a schoolboy 

 because I was away from business, and out on 

 a vacation, with nothing to do but to have a 

 good time. 



Well, I admired the pike, people, and the 

 scenery, even if it did rain. Finally, in order 

 to be a little sociable with my fellow-men, more 

 than because I had any doubt about the proper 

 course I should take, I asked about how far it 

 was to the Barnesville pike. 



"Barnesville pike! Why, my good friend, 

 you are going away from the Barnesville pike, 

 and at a pretty good pace too. If you want to 

 go to Barnesville you want to turn around and 

 go the other way." 



Now, I was as much astonished at this piece 

 of information as if I had seen the sun setting 

 in the east. (By the way. I have several times, 

 in traveling, been greatly astonished to see the 

 sun doing this very thing.) I reflected a little. 



and finally, in a sadder and wiser frame of 

 mind, I turned around and climbed the great 

 long hill that I had just ridden down. The hill 

 was wet and slippery, and I was having quite 

 enough exercise without running down hills 

 and then turning around and climbing them 

 again just for the fun of it. I tried in vain to 

 convince myself that west was in the direction 

 the man said it was; but that stubborn part of 

 a person when he is turned around would not 

 be convinced. It made me think of the old 

 adage, "A woman convinced against her will is 

 of the same opinion still," and I mentally de- 

 cided that, if any woman was as contrary as 

 this other part of myself, she must be pretty 

 bad indeed. 



Permit me to digress just a little right here. 

 I have before alluded lo the fact that there 

 seems to be in every one of us another person — 

 a somebody who seems to be involuntarily 

 managing for us. If we fall into the water this 

 other self draws in a great big breath or a sort 

 of gasp. I do not know what he does it for 

 unless he thinks he may get under water and 

 not find plenty of air, so he will lay in a great 

 stock. If somebody goes up behind you noise- 

 lessly, this other chap makes a great start. 

 You do not do it. In fact, you have nothing to 

 do with it. You could not help yourself, even 

 if you tried to. This queer fellow is right along 

 with you, sleeping and waking. You do not 

 seem to be able to get along without him, and 

 sometimes it is a pretty hard matter to get 

 along ivith him. He and I had quite a tussle 

 about this matter of getting lost. I was vexed 

 because I had lost so much time and strength 

 in going several miles out of my way, through 

 the rain and mud, and I threw the blame all on 

 him. Said I: 



"Why, you might have known when you 

 came into the big pike that you were to turn to 

 the right to go to Barnesville. What on earth 

 possessed you to turn to the left? " 



But this fellow said: 



" I think the left is the right way yet. I am 

 sure it is straight west, no matter what the 

 man said. I do not believe he knew." 



And (would you believe it?) this fellow was 

 so contrary I asked another person. Then said I : 



" Why, you stupid idiot, how could you get 

 into the national pike on the south v/ithout 

 crossing it somewhere, when you started'out on 

 the north side? " 



At first this other fellow would not say any 

 thing: but when I insisted on some sort of 

 answer, he said he did not know how " we " got 

 there on the south side of the national pike, 

 but we certainly came into it on the south, and 

 he would always stick to it. Did you ever hear 

 of any thing more illogical or provoking ? Of 

 course, we two dropped the subject. There did 

 not seem to be any thing else to do under the 

 circumstances; but in spite of every thing I 

 could do he would have it that we were going 

 to Barnesville by traveling eastivard; so I at 

 last gave up; and when I got mellowed down 

 a little I began to enjoy that beautiful pike. 

 Of course, there were great hills to climb, and 

 it was rainy enough to make the stone roadway 

 a little slippery; but the grand country that 

 showed itself at the top of every piece of rising 

 ground was ample compensation. It seems to 

 to me I never saw so much white clover before 

 in all my life as on that trip. I was told there 

 used to be quite a business in keeping bees, but 

 most of them had given it up in consequence of 

 the repeated poor seasons. Just now everybody 

 told me, however, they were having a great flow 

 of white-clover honey. 



The rain began to increase again; but I tied 

 up my coat on my handle-bars so it was pretty 



