28 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1. 



visit. Friend Peck met me at the train, and 

 announced that there was to be a meeting out 

 on the great prairies, a little over thirty miles 

 away. Now, friend Peck is a wheel- rider, and 

 I had my chainless Columbia with me, and so 

 I proposed that we should by all means go on 

 our wheels. But he thought we had better 

 take the train. He feared that thirty miles 

 would be too much for me in one afternoon, 

 especially if we wanted to be in good trim for 

 the meeting in the tent that Saturday evening. 



" Why, look here, Bro. Peck. I never ride 

 on a train under any circumstances when there 

 is a possibility of making the same trip by 

 wheel. In fact, I have often ridden the wheel 

 when I had a ticket in my pocket to go on the 

 train." 



So, off we started. Now, I have a good 

 many times, as you may remember, told you 

 about the " finest roads for wheeling in the 

 world ;" but the black prairie soil, when it is 

 tramped down hard by travel, and swept 

 cleaner than any housewife could sweep a 

 floor, by the tremendous Dakota winds, is cer- 

 tainly equal to any thing on the face of the 

 earth. In many places it is scarcely a bit 

 behind an asphalt pavement. Providentially 

 the wind favored us ; and it blew as only 

 Dakota winds can blow. Oh what fun we 

 had that afternoon ! The thirty miles of road 

 was almost a level stretch, or at most only 

 slightly undulating ; and all the way was 

 through large farms, some of them a mile 

 square, sometimes a square mile of wheatfields 

 interspersed with grass and pasture. Before 

 sundown we could see the tent, a little white 

 speck away off in the distance. 



The Rev. R. N. Kratz was to assist in the 

 services that evening, and we caught sight of 

 him sitting in a camp-chair at the door of the 

 tent, reading. My two friends feared the cold 

 lunch they oftentimes put up with in their 

 tent work would not be just the thing for me. 

 But I assured them, first by words and after- 

 ward by practical demonstration after riding 

 thirty miles in one afternoon, that almost any 

 kind of wholesome food, providing there was 

 plenty of it, would answer tiptop. I remem- 

 ber vividly that we had a cold chicken. And 

 then there were some loaves of brown bread 

 made of Dakota flour. Now, I am very par- 

 tial to bread that is well baked, and old 

 enough to be tolerably dry, and this filled the 

 bill to a dot. I am very fond of the right 

 kind of bread and butter; in fact it is, a good 

 deal of the time, almost the only thing I eat 

 with my beefsteak. But this bread was cer- 

 tainly the most palatable and satisfying of any 

 I had ever before found, east, west, south, or 

 north ; and, to tell the truth, every bit of 

 bread I saw while in Dakota seemed to be 

 quite a little superior to any thing in that line 

 I ever got hold of before. First I give the 

 credit to the wheat grown on those dry prai- 

 ries, and then to the good housewives who 

 know how to make bread, and, in fact, to do 

 almost any thing else in the way of getting up 

 an appet zing meal. I was somewhat acquaint- 

 ed with Bro. Kratz already. I first met him 

 and learned to love him in our Medina County 

 jail. One Sunday when I was pleading with 



a pretty good-sized class of prisoners (that 

 was years ago, before the saloons of Medina 

 were banished) Bro. Kratz was brought in and 

 introduced to me. We were both at that time 

 engaged a good deal in prison work, and 

 therefore when he reached Medina, and some- 

 body told him I had a class in the jail, he 

 obtained permission to come in. I do not 

 know how much good his exhortations did 

 the prisoners that day. It seems to me his 

 kind and earnest words ought to have saved 

 at least one soul if not more. But they warm- 

 ed my heart toward him in a way I shall never 

 forget. I do not know but he will scold me 

 for what I am going to tell you. As I got it 

 from other parties I may not have gotten it 

 straight ; but I took pains to find out, and I 

 know I am pretty nearly right when I tell 

 you that he dropped a government position, 

 relinquishing quite a good sized salary, in 

 order that he might take up with this evangel- 

 istic work over the Dakota prairies, even 

 though the latter did not afford him more 

 than a half — perhaps not even a third — as 

 much as his former office. He did it because 

 God's voice called him to the work. Now, 

 Bro. Kratz is a Methodist while Bro. Peck is 

 a Congregationalist; and yet these two friends 

 labored together in a way that brought to my 

 mind again and again the story of David and 

 Jonathan in holy writ. 



Toward dusk loads of people began to come 

 in from away out across the prairies ; and, oh 

 what a nice meeting we had ! 



The next morning I wanted to see the sun 

 rise out on the great prairie. In fact, my two 

 friends told me that sometimes there were 

 beautiful mirages to be seen. But the mirages 

 did not get along that morning, but something 

 else came along. Bro. Kratz put his head out 

 of the sleeping-tent and happened to get a 

 glimpse of my chainless wheel, and asked me 

 some questions a^out it. Now, we were all 

 away out in the country. The houses were 

 nearly a mile apart, and there was not any- 

 body up, anyway. I suggested to Bro. Kratz 

 that he should get out on the smooth road and 

 just run it a few rods to see how it would go. 

 Well, he started off; and as it seemed easier 

 to go ahead than to stop, he kept on ; and the 

 next thing I knew the minister in his shirt- 

 sleeves and slippers, and his white hair flying, 

 was getting out of sight in the distance, on 

 the beautiful Dakota roads, on that beautiful 

 Sunday morning. By this time Bro. Peck 

 looked out, and we had a big laugh to think 

 of the devoted pastor riding a wheel just for 

 sport on Sunday morning. Bro. Peck sug- 

 gested that Bro. K. was going around the 

 square so as to come in from the odier direc- 

 tion. I wonder if some of my good friends 

 will not think I am a little loose in my ileas 

 in regard to keeping the Sabbath. Permit 

 me to say, briefly, that, were it not for the 

 precedent it might be setting, I would do a 

 great many things that I now refrain from 

 doing I once asked a noted divine a ques- 

 tion something like this: " Bro. Ryder, if you 

 were on an island, as was Robinson Crusoe, 

 and you and your wife and children were the 

 only inhabitants, if I understand you correctly 



