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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Mar. 15 



Our Homes 



By A. I. Root 



His leaf also shall not wither.— Psalm l: 3. 



Soiiie friends from the North, who have 

 been reading Gleanings for almost forty 

 years, were looking over our premises, and 

 among other things our neighbor (Mr. Rood) 

 called their attention to our six mulberry- 

 trees that are now once more loaded with 

 fruit, some of it just getting ripe.* It is now 

 about six weeks since we had any rain, and 

 yet the mulberry-trees didn't seem to know 

 there was any drouth, for they were covered 

 with a most luxuriant foliage as well as 

 fruit, and I called the attention of our vis- 

 itors to the fact that the row of trees stood 

 close by the tiling that takes the water from 

 our incubator cellar; and, in fact, at one 

 place a box has been placed, forming a little 

 spring where the chickens come from one 

 large yard to drink. The spring in the cel- 

 lar has never failed, so far, and I said to our 

 guests, "You see, friends, these trees are 

 like the one spoken of in that beautiful 

 Psalm, 'And he shall be like a tree planted 

 by the rivers of water that bringetn forth 

 his fruit in his season. ' ' 



Now, I do not know that Mrs. Root has 

 ever before furnished a text for my Home 

 papers; but she did this time, although she 

 did not know it. The text she furnished 

 was her added remark to what I had just 

 said, "His leaf also shall not wither." 

 Somebody then added, "And whatsoever 

 he doeth shall prosper." Mr. Rood was 

 standing near me, and I caught a bright 

 twinkle in his eye as I followed with the re- 

 mark, " Dear friends, that last is a wonder- 

 ful Bible promise; and can it indeed be 

 all true?" Since that time I have been 

 pondering a good deal on that first Psalm, 

 and, in fact, 1 have read it many times over 

 and over. 



Our good pastor, Rev. J. E. Henderson, 

 has been giving us some startling and won- 

 derful sermons of late. In one of them he 

 spoke of formal prayers, repeating the same 

 thing over and over, for instance, and he 

 said something like this: "Suppose you 

 were to go to your grocer or to the drygoods 

 store and repeat the same lingo over and 

 over every day; what would he think of 

 you? The Bible again and again enjoins us 

 to ask for the things we need, and says to 



* These six mulberry-Jrees were little whips set 

 out three years ago. Last April they were so load- 

 ed with fruit (large htscions fruit, let me tell you) 

 that we and our neighbors could not use them all, 

 and at one period they got dead ripe and fell on the 

 ground until even the chickens had more than they 

 could use: and this year there is a bigger crop than 

 ever before, and they are commencing to ripen the 

 last of February. It hardly seems a month ago that 

 they were destitute of foliage; and I can hardly 

 realize that it is possible they are not only now In 

 full leaf, but full of fruit. I presume it is largely 

 owing to our very mild January and February, at 

 least so far. 



US, ' Ask, and ye shall receive.' " Last Sun- 

 day eve his subject was about starting in 

 the work for the new week, and he most 

 earnestly enjoined praying over our plans, 

 undertakings, and projects. His text was 

 Mark 1: 35: "And in the morning, rising up 

 a great while before day, he went out and 

 departed into a solitary place and there 

 prayed." Then he added, "How many of 

 you, friends, are in the habit of following 

 the Master so far as to get up before day 

 and pray about the work and tasks (often 

 disagreeable ones) that lie before you?" 

 Then he followed with an astonishing list of 

 illustrious men and women whose labors 

 have benefited the world, who were very 

 much in the habit of rising early, and pre- 

 facing every undertaking with most earnest 

 and heartfelt prayer. 



His earnest sermon called to my mind an 

 incident of my early Christian life. Those 

 of our readers who have taken Gleanings 

 for thirty or forty years will, perhaps, recall 

 the story, and that, when I turned partly 

 away from bees, and began studying the 

 Holy Scriptures, I was something like the 

 man whose "delieht is in the law of the 

 Lord, and in his law doth he meditate both 

 day and night." Now please, friends, do 

 not think I am boasting, for God knows I 

 am only telling you this story just as I 

 would try to help you about raising mulber- 

 ries and chickens. You know how much I 

 am still given to hobbies; and when I first 

 began testing "the promises of God," is 

 it any thing strange that I should become 

 not only enthusiastic, but even what the 

 world might consider reckless? In my en- 

 thusiasm I went into our county jail, read 

 the Bible, and prayed with a poor soul who 

 was on his way to the penitentiary; and 

 when he was honestly converted, as I had 

 faith to believe he was, I was permitted to 

 take him out of jail and set him to work. 

 I was a jeweler at that time; and when one 

 of the clerks who slept in the store was sick 

 or called away I asked my new-found friend 

 to take his place and keep watch of the val- 

 uable goods. He assented, but rather so- 

 berly, 1 thought; but in the evening, after I 

 had closed up and was getting ready to go 

 home, he came up and stood by the show- 

 case. Pretty soon he began drumming on 

 the glass, and finally commenced some- 

 thing as follows: 



"Mr. Root, do all these watches and 

 things stay right here in this show-case 

 over night?" 



At that date safes were not so muca in 

 vogue as they are now, and I had little mon- 

 ey to buy one, even if they were. After a 

 little he commenced again: 



"I suppose some of these watches are 

 worth thirty or forty dollars, are they not? " 



"Yes, Fred, more than that. You are 

 not afraid of so much responsibility, are 

 you? " 



"Mr. Root, do you realize what you are 

 doing? You have, in your wonderful kind- 

 ness of heart, taken me out of the jail, and 

 now you propose to put me, a hardened sin- 



