1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



447 



denouncing him. I myself used words that 

 were terribly hard and severe ; but they had 

 scarcely passed my lips before I almost turned 

 pale when memory told me that, years ago 

 ( before I made any profession of Christianity, 

 of course), I myself was guilty of something 

 like it ; the harsh words I had just been using 

 might, with great truth at one time in my 

 life, have been applied to nie ; yet mj^ friends 

 and neighbors were considerate enough to 

 " deal gently with the erring." As I menially 

 considered the matter I got my breath, as it 

 were, and said to myself, "May God forgive 

 me ; " but the presence of the Holy Spirit did 

 not let me off quite so easily. I went about 

 my work, but something kept ringing in my 

 ears, "Thou art the man." David once un- 

 consciously pronounced sentence against him- 

 self, as you may remember, and it was a 

 terribly hard and severe one too. But the 

 old prophet fearlessly raised his finger, and, 

 looking the king fully and fairly in the face, 

 said, unflinchingly," 77/tJ« art the man." Poor 

 David ! He bowed in humiliation and shame, 

 and accepted the sentence that God had pro- 

 nounced through the old prophet for his sin 

 and crime. Now, is it the Holy Spirit that 

 has been warning me, and urging me to be 

 careful and merciful ? I verily believe it is. 



During the month of May I am always 

 troubled more or less by dogs running over 

 my plant-beds. You may say the plant beds 

 should be fenced up. Well, that would make 

 us no end of trouble, for they run clear along 

 in front of the factory. Our small boys skip 

 over after vegetable-plants, pie plant, straw- 

 berries, and back again to customers. A fence 

 would make lots of needless steps, and, be- 

 sides, there are comparatively no fences in 

 Mtdina. They are getting to be out of fash- 

 ion. There is a superfluity of dogs almost 

 everywhere. One of our daily papers, in dis- 

 cussing the matter a while ago, said with 

 cumic seriousness, "Really, now, wouldn't 

 half the dogs do the work? " The point of the 

 joke was that there is not any work, and 

 never has been, for nine-tenths of the dogs. 

 But then ) on know, I am not interested in 

 dogs — at least not just now. Well, the other 

 day I happened to look through the windows 

 of the seed-room, and saw a good-sized dog 

 walking back and forth in the soft rich 

 ground among my celery-plants, just after the 

 rain. I went out to drive him away (just as I 

 drive the chickens, you know) so he would 

 not go back again ; but instead of going 

 through the paths, he seemed to go over the 

 beds and do as much harm as possible. Final- 

 ly he lay down and curled himself up right on 

 some of my choicest plants. He was in a sort 

 of " corner," and evidently did not know what 

 I wanted of him. A little stick about the size 

 of a lath lay right handy ; and when he would 

 not get off the bed by scolding I gave him a 

 smart rap with the stick, telling him to get up 

 and go off. He whined with pain, and finally, 

 thinking 1 was just doing it to torture him, he 

 began to show fight, and snapped at me, tear- 

 ing up the plants, and making more ruinous 

 disorder every moment. I raised my stick to 

 give another whack, and then remembered 



about the man who took his helpless fellow- 

 servant by the throat. I did not strike the 

 dog any more ; but I moved to one side, and 

 exhorted him to get away, which he did. A 

 little time afterward I saw a teamster in front 

 of the store pick up his lines to start home. 

 Then my attention was attracted by a dog 

 springing up in front of the horses' heads, and 

 showing by his antics that he was greatly 

 pleased about something. In fact, he was 

 rejoicing to such an extent that one of the 

 horses stepped on him, and then the wagon- 

 wheel ran over his tail, or something of that 

 sort. But nothing could check his joy, for 

 they were finally "going home." Yes, it was 

 the same dog that spoiled my plants. When 

 his master came to the store and stayed a good 

 while he felt lost and troubled. Who knows 

 how much a puppy may suffer when he finds 

 himself without his master in a strange town ? 

 They would not let him come into the store, 

 and so in his anxiety and trouble he got 

 around to the seed-room, and was standing on 

 my plants while looking through the window 

 to get a glimpse of the one he loved. When 

 his master and the well-known horses started 

 to go home, then he knew his troubles were 

 over, and I presume he thought in his dog 

 mind that, if he once got safely home, he 

 would never risk again coming to a place 

 where a horrid cruel man pounded puppy 

 dogs when they were not doing any thing out 

 out of the way at all — at least so far as they 

 knew. You see my heart was in my plants. 

 The dog did not know any thing about plants. 

 If it had been explained to him that he was 

 making mischief, and that the hard graveled 

 paths, instead of the soft beds, were the proper 

 place for a dog to walk, why, he would most 

 gladly have kept in the paths. Now, the Holy 

 Spirit, through the voice of conscience, seem- 

 ed to be teaching me all this as by an object- 

 lesson. The dog had his ideas and notions, 

 and I in like manner had mine. The dog was 

 as honest and well-meaning as anybody could 

 be ; and I — well, m.ost of the time I hope and 

 pray that I, too, mean well toward my fellow- 

 men ; but the Holy Spirit seems to be trying 

 to teach me that I am far too ready to take 

 people "by the throat." No doubt they need 

 taking by the throat many times. When a 

 bad man is deliberately and purposely wrong- 

 ing a child, if, when the matter is fully ex- 

 plained to him, he persists in keeping on, the 

 strong arm of the law should take him by the 

 throat and hold him in its grasp until he 

 promises to behave. If a midnight assassin 

 pushes into your bedroom, and you get him 

 by the throat, by all means hold on. Choke 

 the life out of him before he can use the re- 

 volvers he is provided with, if you can ; but, 

 dear brother, you ought to be very sure that he 

 is an assassin, and that he is provided with 

 revolvers. Many a man has killed a neighbor 

 or one of his best friends, under similar cir- 

 cumstances, because he was not sure he was 

 right. 



There is another phase of this little story. It 

 is a man who had been pardoned of a great 

 debt who was so harsh and severe on his fel- 

 low-servant. They used to say in slavery 



