1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



647 



"Now, I am just curious lo know what 

 happened, Mr. Griggs. You didn't take a 

 pocketful of bees to church with you, I hope?" 



" No, Mr. Rambler, it was worse than that 

 — worse than that." 



"Now, My-nervy, I wish you'd keep still 

 about that matter. You're always telling on 

 me, and getting me into a pickleish feeling." 



" You must tell it, Mr. Griggs ; it may be a 

 warning to me to keep out of a like pickle." 



"Land's sake! I hope so. Wall, if you 

 must have it, the pickle that I got into was 

 this way : One Sunday morning, after I had 

 hitched Billy to the wagon for going to church, 

 and while waiting for My-nervy to see to her 

 chicks, I thought I would look to a hive of 

 bees that I thought would swarm soon. When 

 I was fooling around the hive I saw a hen's 

 nest under one of the hives, with two eggs in 



it. I picked them up to take them to the 

 house, but some other things needed my at- 

 tention, where I had to use both hands, and I 

 put the eggs in my coat-tail pocket. Before I 

 had gotten through with the hives, Mj -nervy 

 was a shouting for me, and I just tumbled out 

 of the yard and into the wagon, and never 

 thought about the eggs in my pocket. We 

 jogged along calmly until we had passed 

 Deacon Scott's, when My-nervy, says she, 

 ' Whew ! Deacon Scott or some one has killed 

 a skunk, I guess; anyway, there's something 

 that smells strong.' It was just so when we 

 arrived at the village. Something smelled 

 strong there too. 'Yes,' said I, 'My-nervy, 

 you think that every thing should smell as 

 sweet as a camomile-bed. 1 suppose some of 

 these folks have had onions for breakfast, and 

 that is what you smell.' 



"As I had a cold and a little catarrhal 

 trouble, I could not smell any disagreeable 

 odors. Wall, we were soon in church. Our 

 pew is on one of the side aisles, but it ends up 



against Judge Grabbe's pew. The judge pays 

 $15 more than I do for a pew, just because it 

 is on the broad aisle, you know. My-nervy 

 can sit right up against his pew. and get just 

 as much of the gospel as the judge can, and 

 at cheaper rates. The judge's wife is very 

 haughty, and can scarcely notice us poor folks; 

 but this time we seemed to attract her atten- 

 tion, and she seemed in a great fidget. The 

 folks in front and the rear of us acted in the 

 same way. The judge's wife got up and 

 flounced out of the church. My-nervy be- 

 came red in the face, and whispered to me, 

 ' Hiram, something smells bad ; that is what 

 is the matter with them.' 



" At the close of her remarks the people all 

 arose to sing Greenland's Icy Mountains. I 

 never like to be the center of so much attrac- 

 tion, and I wished that I was an icy mountain 

 or a coral strand. As I was sweat- 

 ing over the matter the usher for 

 our aisle had a confab with Dea- 

 con Sayles, and at its conclusion 

 he came to me, and said, ' Mr. 

 Griggs, something seems to be 

 the matter with your pew. There 

 is a strong odor here.' 



"Says I, 'That is what My- 

 nerva says ; but I feel just as in- 

 nocent of it as a spring chicken.' 

 " I was so awfully embarrassed 

 and warm that I put my hand 

 into my coat pocket for a hand- 

 kerchief, and, blamed if I didn't 

 run my hand into those eggs 

 that I had put into my pocket 

 and forgotten, and which had 

 been crushed. Now, my My- 

 nervy never throws away an 

 egg as long as it will hold to- 

 gether. Even if she knows it is 

 rotten she will save it and use it 

 for a nest-egg, she is so saving of 

 good eggs, you know. I had 

 pocketed one of those rotten 

 eggs, and that was the cause of 

 all the odor and all the trouble. 

 When I pulled my hand out of 

 my pocket I contemplated the situation, and 

 felt dismally small. My-nervy wrapped her 

 hemstitched handkerchief around my deco- 

 rated fingers, and we marched out of the 

 church and went home, and we didn't go 

 again for three months." 



"Well, I suppose you laid it all to your 

 wife." 



" Not I, Mr. Rambler. I know that is quite 

 a common waj' to do. There is neighbor 

 Sharp. If he loses a plow-wrench out in a 

 fifty-acre lot he will up and blame his wife 

 for losing the wrench. No, sir ; I have 

 sworn to cherish and protect My-nervy; and 

 even if she was to blame I'd take part of the 

 blame and let the public know nothing 

 about it." 



"But didn't the minister and the deacons 

 say any thing to you about coming back to 

 the church?" 



" Yes, they were very anxious; and Deacon 

 Sayles told us not to mind it — that it was an 

 accident, and told us not to backslide for such 



