188 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1. 



pure, and always contains a trace of limewater 

 from the whitewashed roofs. Babies are often 

 given limewater for sour stomach. Babies 

 and everybody else have it here — the faint 

 trace of lime in the drinking-water, and not 

 the sour stomach. See ? 



The coral roads for wheel-riding, curving 

 gracefully in and among the gardens, up and 

 down just enough for nice riding, are beyond 

 any thing I can describe. The songs of the 

 birds, the gorgeous flowers, beyond any thing 

 I supposed the world contained — is that last 

 too strong? Well, friend M. showed me one 

 plant tljis afternoon that is finer than any 

 thing I ever expected to find on the whole 

 earth. It is called a " Bougan villa." It was 

 spreading over a veranda, and the masses of 

 bloom were of such startling and entrancing 

 brilliancy as to hold one's gaze when his eye 

 caught on to it a quarter of a mile away. This 

 mass of bloom from the one plant would al- 

 most make a load for a common hay-rack. 



One thing more : All the onions grown in 

 Bermuda are trans-planted on the plan of the 

 " new onion culture," and have been for ages 

 past. They never raise them in any other 

 way. Strawberries are only(?) 60 cts. a quart, 

 and they can be grown nine months in the 

 year. 



Most of the people here attend church, and 

 there is very little sabbath-breaking unless it 

 is by rich people who come here from New 

 York. We are a mile from town, among the 

 gardens This place is called "Sunnyside." 

 On the hill above is " Sunny Land;" and over 

 further is " Happy Valley." The name is 

 right, for there are more happy hills and val- 

 leys here than anywhere else in the world, I 

 do believe; and one reason is that the people 

 are almost all colored. The}' are fairly well 

 educated, nearly all Christians, and have 

 pretty homes, and are all hard-working people, 

 or nearly all. They are protected and respect- 

 ed by Queen Victoria, and seem in many 

 respects very much different from the colored 

 people in America. A good many of the gar- 

 deners are Portuguese, and a bright little 

 Portuguese girl is chattering to me now, and 

 showing me the presents she got at school. 

 This is a new world, full of strange things. 

 The most beautiful and luscious nmsk melon I 

 ever tasted grew on a tree in the yard, and 

 the tree is full of them, from little green ones 

 to big ripe yellow ones, and this right in win- 

 ter time too. There is very little wood here, 

 so the houses are all made of stone, and the 

 fences too. The h->uses and fences are as 

 white as clean white sheets on washing-days. 

 Nobody here ever saw any frost, snow, or ice. 

 Nobody need lock the doors nights here, as 

 stealing is so rare. There is almost no crime, 

 for the culprit could not get oflf the island, 

 neither could he hide where the Queen's sol- 

 diers could not find him. Nearly all the in- 

 temperance is among the rich people who 

 come from New York. 



To my Sunday-school class: 



SUNNYLAND, BERMUDA, Feb. 14, 1898. 



Dear Boys:— I shall give you only a brief 

 sketch this morning of the wonderful things 



in this land of perpetual summer. The houses 

 here have no chimneys. The cooking is all 

 done on oil-stoves. The fences are all coral 

 rock, and one could almost run a wheel on top 

 of many of them. When the dog runs out to 

 bark at people he goes along the top of the 

 fence. The trees, grass, flowers, and every 

 thing, are all unlike Medina. Oleander-trees 

 grow wild everywhere; and the finest melon I 

 ever ate was picked from a tree, and there 

 were great clusters of green and ripe melons 

 left on the tree. There are many fruits I nev- 

 er saw or heard of before. I have not yet 

 tasted them all. I picked out four limes (a 

 kind of lemon ) at a fruit-stand, and held out 

 some money ( for I have not yet learned the 

 names of all the coins), and the man said a 

 penny (a big cent) was the price. Just think 

 —four lemons for a cent ! The money here is 

 half-pennies, pennies, twopence, threepence 

 (silver), sixpence, and shilling. A shilling is 

 about like our quarter. 



Last Saturday we went out several miles on 

 our wheels, and came to a place called " Dev- 

 il's Hole." I don't like the name, but my 

 companion said we were to stop there. It 

 was a sort of rocky inclosure, and over the 

 gate it read, " Admittance one shilling." In- 

 side were three little ponds of water — one very 

 shallow, with the bottom white sand. In this 

 one were the " angel fish," perhaps the hand- 

 somest living thing in the whole round of liv- 

 ing and moving creation. Imagine the most 

 bt-autiful goldfish, with glittering penciled 

 scales, and of almost all the tints of the rain- 

 bow. As if this were not enough, God has 

 given the beautiful creature long flowing fins, 

 like unto angels' wings (or what they are sup- 

 posed to be like), and then added to all a 

 grace of motion that can not well be describ- 

 ed. These fish won't live in aquariums, they 

 say, so they can be seen only here. What a 

 contrast, to think of finding such a creature 

 in " Devil's Hole " ! But right in with the an- 

 gel fish is an octoptis, a hideous creature with 

 long sprawling arms or feelers (tentacles), and 

 with an evil, vindictive-looking eye that might 

 well give the name to the place. He turned 

 on us wralhfully, and then went straggling 

 off with his ungainly form as well out of sight 

 as he could get. When he is real mad he spits 

 out ' ' ink ' ' that darkens the clear sea- water, 

 so his enemy can not find him. 



The next inclosure was deeper; but the third 

 and largest one was from 50 to 75 feet deep, 

 and perhaps as large as our church, yet we 

 could see clear to the bottom whenever the 

 great fish would let the water be still enough. 

 There were in this larger pond almost all kinds 

 of fish found in the sea — some of them as big 

 as a good-sized boy. They came around us 

 like a lot of hungry chickens; and when I 

 wanted to see them fed, the guide said a boy 

 would get a loaf of bread up at the grocery if 

 I would give him some money. Now, that 

 loaf of bread cost only "tuppence," but it 

 gave the fish and mj-self more real satisfaction 

 than I ever got out of so small a sum of mon- 

 ey before. You see we had been wheel-riding, 

 and it was toward night. I tell you, boys, 

 they know how to make good bread over here. 



