1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



613 



"And pray tell me why / have not as good 

 a rig-ht to say 'the circumstances are such' 

 that it is impossible /placed it there." 



Now, that little bell of conscience I have 

 told 3'ou about began ringing sharp and 

 clear — " Lord, help! " and when that bell 

 rings, I always stop. These words, "Lord, 

 help! " came into my life soon after I be- 

 came a Christian; and although this little 

 alarm-bell is not often used of late years, 

 it is there yet, and it never fails. May 

 God be praised for it. Had it not been for 

 the little prayer, " Lord, help I " I should 

 have added, '^ Suc/i reasoning is all you 

 can expect of a woman, anyhow." I did 

 not say it then, mind you, and I am ex- 

 ceedingly glad I did not. I have never told 

 Mrs. Root I thought of saying it. May be 

 when she sees it in print she will be "mad" 

 yet, but I think not. 



Well, this little jangle disturbed my 

 peace of mind, and marred that delicate 

 machinery, and threw it out of ture for 

 several days — I mean the machinery I have 

 been talking about that keeps up that holy 

 bond of sympathy between man and wife. 

 It was not until we two were alone up in 

 the cabin in the woods that I made the 

 wonderful discovery (at least wonderful to 

 me) that this love, sympathy, and affection 

 are more precious and more satisfying than 

 any thing else in this whole wide world. 



A great many men are in the habit of 

 looking down upon their wives as not quite 

 their equals in intellect and judgment and 

 perception. Oh! I know, dear friends, just 

 as Artemas Ward said he knew it was a 

 bad plan to tell lies. He knew by experi- 

 ence. Even after I had been for years a 

 professing Christian, I was in the habit of 

 having moods or spells when I did not want 

 to be talked to. Mrs. Root told me not very 

 long ago that for years, while she knew, as 

 a general thing, I liked to have her near 

 me, there w< re times when I did not want 

 to be disturbed. For instance, suppose I 

 was planning my Home paper and making 

 notes, she would say somethirg, and I 

 would not answer, because I was busy, or 

 perhaps (God forgive me) I would rudely 

 ask her not to bother me. She said that, 

 for many years, she was afraid of me at 

 such times. Now, friends, please take this 

 in the right sense. She was afraid I might 

 be tired or a little bit cross, and would not 

 want to talk; but, dear friends, that time 

 has all gone by. There is not a moment in 

 all my existence, either day or night, when 

 it does not give me a thrill of pleasure to 

 hear her voice and feel the touch of her 

 hand or catch a glimpse of her dear figure 

 somewhere in the dim distance. And you 

 too, dear brother and sister, may feel this 

 same joy, this precious gift from God, to 

 fill your soul to the brim with happiness 

 because of the companion he in his loving 

 kindness has given you, even though you be 

 between sixty and seventy years of age. 

 This relation between you two may grow 

 so strong that no power on earth can mar 

 it. I am not sure that even death itself will 



end it. I have searched my Bible careful- 

 ly, and I know pretty well what it says 

 about it. 



Now please pardon me if I go a little 

 further. W^hen I was in my teens I got 

 hold of a book by Fowler & Wells. In it 

 there were extracts from poems. It was 

 about the time I first met Mrs. Root, when 

 she was in the bloom of girlhood. It read 

 something like this : 



Then come in the evening or come in the morning; 

 Come when you're looked for or come without warn- 

 ing. 



Then follows a line I can not for the life 

 of me recall; but the last line of the verse 

 was : 

 But the oftener you come, the more I'll adore you. 



My boyish fancy suggested at that time 

 (I was eighteen or nineteen) that I could 

 live with Mrs. Root all my life, and feel 

 just that way; yes, and such might have 

 been the case, I presume had Christ Jesus 

 at that time been my leader. May God for- 

 give me for straying as I did. Perhaps 

 this love between us two might not have 

 been so perfect had it not been for the thorns 

 and brambles (of my own making) through 

 which we two have traveled for a. few of the 

 forty and more years we have lived togeth- 

 er. But, may God be praised, I can now 

 say, as we have it in our little verse, Mrs. 

 Root may 



Come in the evening or come in the morning; 

 Come when she's looked for, or come without warn- 

 ing. 



I wonder if some of our readers can sup- 

 ply the missing line of that old stanza. 

 Yes, the oftener she comes, the " more I'll 

 adore her." Of course, that word "adore" 

 does not quite fit at our stage of life. We 

 both adore the Lord Jesus Christ ; but next 

 to him comes (to me) the dear wife. 



Of course, it is necessary to be self-sacri- 

 ficing and to give up a good deal to pre- 

 serve this relation. Mrs. Root is an ex- 

 ceedingly sweet tempered woman; but from 

 the knowledge and experience I have of her 

 makeup I know I could stir her up to fierce 

 warfare in less than an hour. But perhaps 

 I had better hold on a bit ; for just now if I 

 should go back to my old selfish ways sud- 

 denly, she would conclude at once that I 

 had gone crazy; and instead of letting her 

 temper come up, she would pity me and 

 call in the friends and relatives. 



Let me now give you an illustration of 

 something recent in the way of self-sacri- 

 fice and giving way to the dear partner of 

 your life. 



While traveling in the cars in Central 

 Michigan a big storm came up. The water 

 came down like "suds," and the fields 

 were covered with puddles of water. Every 

 thing was swimming. Mrs. Root suggest- 

 ed that I unpack her stufi" and get her rub- 

 bers, for when we should reach Toledo it 

 would be sure to be sloppy. Said I: 



"Why, my dear wife, we are several 

 hours and something like 200 miles from 

 Toledo. Thunder-storms in the latter part 

 of June are generally more or less lo- 



