1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



447 



But he said, Nay ; lest while ye gather up the tares 

 ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow 

 together till the harvest ; and m the time of harvest I 

 will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the 

 tares, and bind them in bundles, to burn them : but 

 gather the wheat into my barn, — Matt. 13 : 29, 30. 



Since the beginning of the world I presume 

 it has been a question among reformers, and 

 among all good men and women, as to how 

 fa7- we should go in the way of righting 

 wrongs, when it is sure to result in making a 

 disturbance, and stirring up quarrels. My 

 disposition is such it is very natural for me to 

 set things right just the moment I discover 

 they are wrong — that is, where it comes with- 

 in my province. But I can look back over my 

 life and see how many times I have given pain 

 unnecessarily just because I did not stop and 

 consider that the erring one was not aware 

 he was doing any wrong at all. How often 

 children are scolded, and perhaps sometimes 

 punished, when they are doing their level best 

 to obey orders ! Sometimes, when the explan- 

 a'ion comes later, my heart has been so touch- 

 ed I feel as if I could weep with the child 

 while I wiped the tears from his face. Again 

 and again has the dear partner of my life bid- 

 den me be careful and patient, telling me I 

 did not understand the child. Somehow or 

 other she seems always to understand. Blue- 

 eyes, whom you remember seeing sitting on 

 my knee, in the former editions of the ABC 

 book, has now a precious blue-eyed boy of her 

 own. He is somewhat afraid of strangers, 

 and has been a little backward about deciding 

 that his grandpa was good and nice. But he 

 ^z/zfaj'5 recognizes his grandma. He is always 

 ready to give her his sweetest smiles, and to 

 welcome even a glimpse of her away across the 

 room. She understands ///;«, and they under- 

 stand each other ; and, by the wav, what a 

 grand and beautiful relationship it is, the one 

 between grandma and the baby ! Well, he is 

 getting to believe now (and he is nearly seven 

 months old) that grandpa too is pretty good, 

 even if he does let him poke dandelion bios 

 soms into his little ros}- mouth and make his 

 rosy lips all yellow, and pucker up his mouth 

 with the bitter taste. 



Sometimes we make a blunder in plucking 

 out the tares. We get an idea that something 

 a little unusual is a tare, when it is really a 

 friend if we knew it. When Huber was just 

 beginning to walk and talk, he disobeyed me 

 one day. He did it so squarely and fairly that 

 I felt sure it was deliberate disobedience. 

 When I took him to task he said in a defiant 

 way — or at least so I took it — he " didn't care." 

 I remonstrated, but still he only repeated with 

 his boyish tongue the expression that he " did 

 n't care." I was appalled to think that such 

 a child could deliberately defy a parent's au- 

 thority, and almost decided he would have to be 

 punished to get the wicked spirit out of him. 

 For a time he was silent, and I called his si- 

 lence stubbornness. I really thought the wee 



chap of a boy was contrary. He was busy 

 thinking, however, even if he did not talk, 

 and pretty soon his boyish heart broke forth. 

 His mouth puckered up, and the sobs were al- 

 most ready to come as his baby lips framed 

 the words, "In honest troot, I don't care." 

 Now, his mother would have guessed long be- 

 fore I did the real state of affairs. He had 

 heard somebody use the words ' ' honest truth, ' ' 

 and knew what they meant ; and, child though 

 he was, he recognized that his papa did not 

 understand him ; and while I was thinking of 

 punishing him for stubbornness, he had ran- 

 sacked his infantile vocabulary to find some 

 words or way that would give his papa an idea 

 of just what he meant. The poor child had 

 got the terms "don't care " and " didn't mean 

 to " confused. When he kept saying he " did 

 n't care " he meant I should understand that 

 the disobedience was unintentional, and that 

 he did not mean to ; and with the sobs welling 

 up from his baby heart he recalled the words 

 some other child had used, and made me com- 

 prehend all there was in his heart, when /was 

 thinking evil of my own baby boy. What he 

 wanted to tell me was, " In honest truth, pa- 

 pa, I did not mean to disobey. I love you, 

 and I believe you know what is best, and I try 

 to do just as you and mamma want me to do. 

 But I am so little, papa, that I make mis- 

 takes, not because I mean to be bad, but be- 

 cause my actions, like my words, do not al- 

 ways tell exactly what is in my baby heart." 

 Yes, no doubt many of you have heard me tell 

 this little story before, and memory has 

 brought it to my mind again and again, and 

 the little incident has done me good, and I 

 hope it may do you good. 



People who are always so ready to root out 

 the tares the minute they get a glimpse of 

 them, oftentimes in their zeal make mistakes, 

 and sometimes they get hold of a stalk of 

 good wheat. First be very sure it is a tare 

 you are going to root out for the good of the 

 community, and then consider again whether 

 the roots of this very tare, if it truly is a tare, 

 may not be so entwined and interwoven with 

 the roots of the wheat that a general tear-up 

 would be the result, and that the crop, at least 

 in that particular spot, will be in worse shape 

 than it was before you undertook the task of 

 trying to make things better. Why, I can 

 look back over my past life and see where, 

 aga'n and again I wounded the feelings of 

 very good people, and made a big rumpus 

 about a little matter that would not have done 

 any particular harm had it been passed by en- 

 tirely, and let alone. 



People have a way of saying " right is right, 

 and light harm-; no man." Some lime ago I 

 had quite a little deal with a man who has 

 been called very difficult to j.et along with. 

 We were doing some work for him. He 

 borrowed a market-basket and laid it down 

 carelessly where a wagon ran over it. In mak- 

 ing out his bill for some work we did for him, 

 he was charged , among other items, with ' ' one 

 market-basket, five cents." After he had paid 

 his bill he insisted on seeing one of the mem- 

 bers of the firm. I asked him what was want- 

 ed, and he pointed to the item, five cents for 



