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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



OUR 



HOMES, 



BY A.I. ROOT. 



Therefore shall a man leave his father and his 

 mother, and shall cleave unto his wife ; and theyshall 

 be one flesh— Gen. 2:24. 



Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and 

 prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner 

 stone.— Eph. 2:20. 



Thou Shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. — Lev. 19:18. 



During the past few days I have been hav- 

 ing a series of " happy surprises ; " and as I 

 write there well up in my heart praises to the 

 great Father for those precious and unexpect- 

 ed blessings. 



I shall have to go back a little to explain. 

 When Mrs Root and I started out in life to- 

 gether, something like 40 years ago, we had 

 planned having a few years to ourselves be- 

 fore having a family of children to look after ; 

 but, as it often happens, "man proposes, but 

 God disposes," and it was so in our case. 

 For about 20 years they came into our home, 

 stringing along one by one, tokens of God's 

 love, and the greatest and most precious gifts 

 he ever sent into a home, although we two did 

 not all at ouce see it just that way. Thank 

 God, we see it now. Well, for the first time 

 in almost 40 years, a few weeks ago we found 

 ourselves as we were when we first began 

 housekeeping. The three older ones are 

 married, and have homes of their own, and 

 the other two are at Oberlin at school. For 

 the first time in all these years, not one of the 

 five needed a mother's daily care. What a 

 sad thing it is to reflect that Satan sometimes 

 gets into a home at just about this crisis ! 

 Why, I have actually known of several di- 

 vorces because the parents quarreled after 

 they had reared a family of children. How 

 such a thing can happen is more than I can 

 tell ; for in our home it was quite the reverse. 

 Our children atl seemed anxious to have us 

 take a good rest and vacation. The boys, all 

 four oi them (two sons-in-law, you see), vol- 

 unteered to take charge of all the business, 

 and let us go where we pleased and stay as 

 long as we pleased ; but Mrs. Root said she 

 was too old to enjoy traveling — that it was so 

 long since she had been out among people she 

 would much rather stay at home ; and, besides, 

 and most important of all, it used her up so 

 she couldn't stand it to travel on the cars, and 

 she couldn't sleep nights anywhere in the 

 world except in her own home. 



I have thus gone into details because I have 

 reason to think there are other good women 

 who are making a similar mistake. She said it 

 was all right for me to travel, and begged me 

 to go alone I did so when I took my first 

 trip to " our farm in the woods ; " but I beg- 

 ged so hard she reluctantly consented to go 

 with me on the second trip ; but when the 

 time came her old " infirmity " (that is what 

 I call it) came back so strong she begged pit- 

 eously to be again left at home. Of course, 

 I gave way ; for in our home, where one does 

 not yield, the other alivays does. 



Well, unexpectedly still another low-rate 

 excursion was announced for points in Michi- 

 gan Oct. 17th ; and by much urging and ex- 

 hortation she and I set forth on the above date, 

 and here my story commences. I especially 

 wanted to " stop over " at several points ; but 

 low-rate excursions don't allow it. When we 

 reached Grand Rapids, however, I was told 

 that, by a new arrangement, the train stopped 

 there for the night. This was one of my 

 "happy surprises," for it was where I wanted 

 to stop. When the agent told me I could take 

 the afternoon train as well as the morning 

 train I was happier still. Well, Mrs. Root 

 slept all right at the hotel ; and in the morn- 

 ing, when we found Eugene Davis' green- 

 houses were a mile and a half from the end 

 of the street-car line, instead of one-fourth of a 

 mile, as I understood when we started, we 

 walked the whole distance with little fatigue. 



While friend D. and I were talking " Grand 

 Rapids lettuce " and greenhouses for growing 

 it, she and Mrs. D. got to be like old friends, 

 as I knew they would. Later on, friend D. 

 took his buggy and we visited the great green- 

 houses of Chas. Chadwick, where one house, 

 devoted entirely to carnations, covers a solid 

 acre. Other houses are devoted to violets, 

 and so on. And then we had a most enjoya- 

 ble ride over the beautiful city of Grand Rap- 

 ids, which now has a population close on to 

 100,000. 



The next day at friend Hilbert's Mrs. Root 

 walked over two miles over the hills, without 

 much fatigue ; and the third day she and I 

 together walked over to that " farm in the 

 woods," and our rambles before we got home 

 must have made six or eight miles ; and she 

 not only slept well at night, but had a good 

 sound refreshing sleep in the woods in the 

 open air. 



Now, all these details may seem unimpor- 

 tant to many. I give them because I know 

 there are thousands of women, I might say 

 mothers, who have reared families, who would 

 find health, strength, and happiness from 

 just such an outing. 



Dear friends, the above has only paved the 

 way for my Home Talk. Let me go back 

 about 42 years, to the time I was a boy of 18. 

 I was then, as now, fond of exploring things 

 new and wonderful. Mrs. Root and I had 

 just become acquainted. Both of us were at- 

 tending school, and it was important our en- 

 tire attention and interest should be given to 

 our studies. As you might expect from what 

 you know of me, I soon began to be more 

 " devoted " to her than to my studies, or to 

 any thing else. Fortunately she showed more 

 good sense than I did, and perhaps more than 

 the average schoolgirl of 17 usually does. 

 She at first attempted to reason, and finallj' 

 declared I must cease my too frequent visits 

 until we both were older, or until she was 

 through with her studies. Her parents, and, 

 in fact, my parents too, were making great 

 sacrifices to keep us in school, and yet / would 

 give up education, and all else, for that mat- 

 ter, because, to my poor foolish boyish heart, 

 she seemed to be the very center of the uni- 

 verse. 



