62 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15. 



girls as well — that is, all except myself. The 

 pain and mortification stung me to the quick ; 

 and I do not think I ever saw that fellow aft- 

 erward without feeling anew the pain of his 

 jeering remark. All my joy and happiness 

 were gone that day, and for days and weeks 

 whenever I thougtt of it. I kept in the back- 

 ground, and sometimes I declared I would go 

 out in the woods and live by myself, and keep 

 away from humanity, especially from the 

 well-dressed people in the towns and cities. 

 I fear I did not have the gospel of Jesus Christ 

 to brace me up at that time. I did not tell 

 anybody, but I just kept thinking of the un- 

 kind speech. Now, I needed just then a little 

 exhortatiou in the way of bearing burdens. 

 I needed the assistance that only the words of 

 the dear Savior can give, but I did not know 

 it. The young man who sneered at me also 

 needed a severe reproof, which I fear he never 

 got. In one way, however, it was a useful 

 lesson to me. I stuck to my books after that 

 as I had not been doing before. I made some 

 mighty resolves that the time should come 

 when that fellow should look up to me, and 

 not down on me ; and it did not take very 

 hard work nor very many years, because he 

 commenced going down almost before I had 

 started to climb up. 



Of late my mind has been dwelling a good 

 deal on boys who are getting to be almost 

 men. These boys are in the hardening-off 

 stage that I have spoken about with the plants. 

 They are just coming out of the forcing-bed 

 of childhood. They are getting able, and are 

 able to stand a certain amount of contact with 

 the frosty world ; but it is dangerous business 

 to give them too much freezing before the 

 character becomes well "rooted." Paul in 

 his message says first, " Bear ye one another's 

 burdens ; " and we who are older and stronger 

 should keep a careful watch over the boys. 

 Do not let them lift too hard ; do not let them 

 work too many hours ; do not let them go out 

 into the cold chilly world too long at a time. 

 If they go to the great cities, keep an eye on 

 them. Somebody has said we are crowding 

 young men into office at such an early age, 

 they get into the insane-asylum before they are 

 old enough to be at their best. I fear it is 

 somewhat true. Let us all try to bear the bur- 

 dens a little of the younger and weaker. Let 

 us be exceedingly careful about hasty censure, 

 and inquire into all the circumstances before 

 we severely reprove or criticise. 



Then let me say to the boys, and to the men 

 and women and children, bear up manfully 

 under the burdens that seem to be put on you. 

 Shoulder your responsibilities. If it seems to 

 you you are loaded down a little more than is 

 your share, be brave, and do not be in haste 

 to complain. Many things that seem beyond 

 our endurance at the time, we look back and 

 laugh at afterward. Many a young woman 

 has thought, when she first took charge of her 

 home, it was just all she could possibly do to 

 take care of that home ; but as she kept on 

 being faithful in few things she found it was 

 not so hard after all. When the little stranger 

 came into the household, for a time she thought 

 she could not all alone bear this additional 



burden ; but grace and strength and wisdom 

 came as the burdens increased ; and when one 

 after another came till half a dozen were added 

 to the household, she looked back and had a 

 good laugh to think of the time when she 

 worried and fretted over the responsibility and 

 care of just one baby, and the father, to be 

 ministered unto. Without God's promises I 

 am not surprised that people become discour- 

 aged ; but with these promises, and with the 

 great blessings that continue to multiply and 

 increase to all who are seeking God's kingdom 

 and his righteousness before any thing else, I 

 am sure no one ever need give up and think 

 his burden too great for endurance. 



Well, our greenhouse is now "a thing of 

 beauty, and a joy ' ' every day. I have got the 

 " hang " of making cuttings until they grow 

 every lime — colei, salvias, geraniums, fuch- 

 sias, etc. But I have not got out of trouble 

 after all. In fact, I begin to think it is better 

 we should have troubles, or else we could not 

 have that thrill of happiness that we experi- 

 ence when we fight through them and have 

 occasional successes. For instance, one day 

 Frank told me ants were crawling all over our 

 orange-tree. I told him the ants would not 

 do any harm ; but pretty soon the tree began 

 to look sickly and /?////j'. A careful examina- 

 tion showed the scale insect was working on 

 the under side of the leaves, and the ants 

 were following these scales as they follow aph- 

 ides for the sweet exudation. The scales were 

 their "cows;" and Peter Henderson says 

 they will transplant these scales, not only 

 from one leaf to another, but from one plant 

 to another ; and I was horrified to find scales 

 actually on a young orange-tree quite a dis- 

 tance from the old one. Of course, I went 

 for the books ; but before I had invested much 

 in whale-oil soap, pine tar, and such like rem- 

 edies, one of the flower-journals said a tub of 

 water at a temperature of 120 degrees is the 

 best and cheapest insect remedy in the world 

 — that is, for all greenhouse plants. Invert 

 the plant and plunge the foliage into the hot 

 water, and keep it there half a minute by the 

 watch. Now, we have water almost boiling 

 hot in one of our cisterns. It accumulates 

 every day from the condensed steam that runs 

 through the tiles. We very soon had a crock 

 of water at 120°. Frank felt sure it would 

 kill the plants, for it was so hot he could not 

 hold his hand in it. But it did not kill the 

 plant ; but it did boil the scales and every 

 other insect and fungus until they were dead 

 enough. We rubbed off the scales from the 

 under side of the leaf, and washed the tarry 

 substance left by the ants in making tracks 

 with their dirty feet ; and the orange-tree 

 looked like a new one, which indeed it was. 

 We found red spiders on some of the roses, 

 and mealy bug on the colei ; but the hot water 



