1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



9 1. 



OUR 



HOMES, 



BY A.I. ROOT. 



But and it" that evil servant shall say in his heart, 

 My lord delayeth his coming ■ and shall begin to smite 

 his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the 

 drunken ; the lord of that servant shall come in a day 

 when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he 

 is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and ap- 

 point him his portion with the hypocrites : there shall 

 be weeping and gnashing of teeth. — Matt. 21:48-61. 



" I dreamed a dream that was not all a 

 dream." This quotation came vividly to my 

 mind when I awoke this morning, and I have 

 been thinking about it more or less all day. 

 The day before had been a very busy one, and 

 I had been hurrying here and there, giving 

 hints to this, that, and the other one, looking 

 after things that nobody seemed to feel re- 

 sponsible for, although each one seemed to be 

 quite willing to take up the matter in hand 

 when I explained to him why it must be at- 

 tended to before the coming winter. Well, in 

 my dream I was making all the rounds as 

 usual. Away down at the further end of the 

 lumber piles — that is, those furthest from the 

 factor}- and nearest the carp-pond — somebody 

 called my attention to a little fire in some 

 straw near the lumber-piles, and he said it 

 should be looked after. It was but a little 

 fire, and a pail of water would have put it out. 

 But there was no pail near, and there were 

 none of my usual helpers who knew where to 

 get a pail and where to get water. I was 

 already pretty tired, and I can not run as I 

 used to, even in case of a fire. There were 

 dozens of workmen just a little way off ; in 

 my dream I saw them scattered all through 

 the lumber-piles all over the premises. Some 

 were taking lumber from the cars, others were 

 loading up finished work. Farmers were 

 there with loads of basswood. The scene was 

 refreshing — that is, so far as seeing so many 

 busily employed was concerned. I called to a 

 boy whom I did not know, or at least did not 

 know very well, and asked him to get a pail 

 of water quick, and I pointed to the fire. To 

 my astonishment he did not seem to be very 

 much interested in the matter, and asked 

 where he could find a pail. I was going to 

 tell him to go to the barn ; but a man who 

 does not know any thing about the barn would 

 blunder around until the fire would be in the 

 lumber piles. I looked in vain for one of the 

 men who take care of the horses, but I could 

 not see any of them. Then I thought I might 

 put the fire out with a piece of board — a thing 

 I have often done, to the surprise of the by- 

 standers ; but when I went around one of the 

 lumber-piles I saw the fire had crept along out 

 of sight, and was already climbing up the pile 

 of lumber. A brisk west wind came up, and 

 the fire was mounting rapidly to the top. The 

 boy who asked me where he could get a pail 

 had resumed his work of piling lumber. I 

 began to yell " Fire ! " and asked those near- 

 est me to " holler " also with all their might, 

 and to get somebody to pull out the hose and 

 attach it to a hydrant not very far off. But 



the only reply I could get was, " I do not know 

 any thing about your hose and hydrants, and 

 I do not think that this little fire will do much 

 harm anyway." Oh how I did long for Frank 

 or Herb, or Ernest or John ! I reflected that 

 Ernest was absent in Denver at the conven- 

 tion, and he knew more about the waterworks 

 than almost anybody else. John, with his 

 great strength and energy, would have betn a 

 power if I could only have got word to him or 

 got hold of him. The foreman of the ma- 

 chine-shop, who has all the waterworks at the 

 ends of his fingers, was probably busy with 

 the work that begins to be hurrying for next 

 year, and knew nothing about it unless he 

 could hear the yell of fire, but nobody would 

 help me give the alarm. 



My voice has been failing of late. It fails 

 in this way : When I try to explain things or 

 give directions in the saw-room and among 

 the machinery, the effort to make myself heard 

 exhausts my strength, mentally and physical- 

 ly. I have sometimes thought that, with the 

 effort required to talk when there is so much 

 noise, I ought not to try to talk, for it has 

 seemed that this and nothing else brought on 

 my nervous chills. I often call the foremen 

 of the different rooms away from the noise of 

 the machinery — sometimes outside of the 

 door, rather than to strain my voice and hurt 

 my throat — yes, and make me " tired " by try- 

 ing to talk amid such clatter. Perhaps I 

 might as well confess that the noise of chil- 

 dren when I want to say something vexes me 

 of late, unless I try verv hard not to be vexed, 

 especially when the children yell at the top of 

 their voices just for the sake of using their 

 lungs when there is no sort of need of such 

 muscular effort. Their young muscles need 

 using for their better development.* Mine 

 need rest because they have been overtaxed. 



Well, I had the same feeling about the fire. 

 I was rapidly using myself up, and nobody 

 took much if any interest in the matter. For 

 quite a spell they said it was only a little fire, 

 and it would not do any harm. But finally, as 

 it climbed and crackled from one lumber-pile 

 to another, when somebody told me he did not 

 believe they could put it out if they tried, and 

 kept on with his work I began to get mad. 

 My Root temper (partly on account of my fa- 

 tigue) was rapidly rising. I said to some of 

 them, " What is the use of your piling lumber 

 or loading cars when they will all be burned 

 up in a few minutes, unless you turn in and 

 help put out the fire?" But they did not seem 

 to care. It was not their lumber, and they 

 were not hired to do that work. The fact that 

 they would probably be out of a job on the 

 morrow did not seem to have any interest for 

 them whatever. 



To cap the climax, just about this time a 

 very bland-looking gentleman came along 

 with a smiling face, and put out his hand, 

 saying he had for long years looked forward 

 to the pleasure of shaking hands with A. I. 

 Root. I was hoarse with over- exertion, and I 

 do not know but I was somewhat hoarse from 



*Oh how I longed in my dream for these same 

 grandchildren or anybody else who could yell and 

 halloo, and " raise the roof," as the expression is ! 



