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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May 1 



Our Homes 



By A. I. Root 



And God said unto Jonah, Doest thou well to be 

 angry for the gourd? and he said, I do well to be an- 

 gry, even unto death.— Jonah 4 : 9. 



I have many times pondered and wonder- 

 ed in regard to the passage above, where 

 even God himself, the great ruler of the uni- 

 verse, condescended to stand, for the time 

 being at least, side by side one of his children 

 — yes, and even remonstrate with the child 

 who was angry. And Jonah undertook to 

 defend himself, and even maintained that 

 he "did well " to be angry. In a like man- 

 ner Elijah, one whom God so greatly hon- 

 ored as to permit him (and almost him 

 alone) to i^ass over death — even Elijah at 

 one time became rebellious and contrary, 

 and told Jehovah that he wished he might 

 die. How much these biblical narrations 

 impress us with the fact that humanity is 

 much the same now as it was then! 



A little over a week ago I got up before it 

 was quite daylight on a Monday morning 

 because I had a busy week before me. It 

 was the week before I returned to my north- 

 ern home, and my i^oullry, big and little, 

 numbering something over 300, was to be 

 disposed of or got out of the way for a six 

 months' absence. First I felt a little wor- 

 ried for fear we could not catch the big ducks; 

 but by Wesley 's help we got the four safely 

 into some porous sacks, such as we buy 

 with the cats used for the poultry. Then 

 came the task of putting my choice Butter- 

 cups, male and female, into some sacks. We 

 have found by experience that these sacks 

 answer very well for putting up fowls for 

 moving short distances, or in the early 

 morning when it is cool. We put four full- 

 grown hens in a sack, then when tied tight 

 at the top, and the sack spread out, they do 

 very well, even in hot weather. Besides 

 the old ducks and the Buttercups, there was 

 a hen with 13 day-old ducklings to be de- 

 li \ered to a customer. We got them all put 

 up nicely, and put them on the automobile 

 so they could get plenty of air, apd then I 

 was ready to start. The hen with the 13 

 ducklings was placed in a shallow box, and 

 a cylindrical poultry-netting cover was slip- 

 ped over the box. At first the hen made 

 quite a racket on being thus confined; but 

 the noise of the automobile soon quieted 

 her, and the ducklings settled down under 

 her wings with their heads sticking out, and 

 then we were oflf. 



My automobile had at this time run be- 

 tween 500 and GOO miles, and had made al- 

 most no trouble; but on that morning, on 

 climbing a sandy hill when I was in a hur- 

 ry, it threatened to balk, and I barely suc- 

 ceeded in reaching the top of the hill. It 

 acted so badly I thought perhaps the spark- 

 plugs must need cleaning. Now, along with 

 my poultry was a crate of eggs from the 

 Sunday before. In order to get out the 



spark-plugs the eggs and ducklings would 

 have to be removed. At the time I set them 

 out I recognized that, with my bad memory, 

 especially when I was disturbed or worried, 

 I was very likely to leave something if I 

 risked putting it out of the automobile. 

 However, I decided that the crate of eggs 

 would have to be placed on the ground for a 

 minute or two. There was no other place 

 for them, and I said, as I had said a hun- 

 dred times before, "Why, I am sure I shall 

 not be such an idiot as to forget to put back 

 that crate of eggs." I cleaned the spark- 

 plugs, and started on. In a little time a 

 colored boy was waving his hand, and shout- 

 ing about something. As my hearing is de- 

 fective, as well as my memory, I could not 

 make out what he said; but I was becoming 

 impatient, and decided that I could not stop 

 any way. When I got about half a mile 

 further it came into my head that the boy 

 was shouting to me that I had left my crate 

 of eggs standing by the side of the road. I 

 thought of turning around to go back after 

 them, but the machine was still acting so 

 badly I felt as if I must get to my destina- 

 tion if iDossible, and let out my ducks and 

 chickens before the sun got hot. The ma- 

 chine kept acting worse and worse. It was 

 losing power so it could only just "crawl." 

 But 1 pushed on at a snail's pace until I 

 was just about a mile from home and a mile 

 from neighbor Abbott, where I was going. 

 Then it refused to go another inch. I crank- 

 ed it till my back ached and my hands were 

 blistered in the frantic effort to get where I 

 could let loose my charges. The sun was 

 getting hot, the little ducks were beginning 

 to murmur, but their mother, in a very 

 motherlike way, quieted them as best she 

 could. Her hen talk, translated, would be 

 something like this: "Hush! hush! darlings. 

 We shall get there pretty soon, I am sure. 

 I know you are hungry and thirsty; but Mr. 

 Root has been our good friend, and I think 

 he is still. He will get us some food and 

 water after a while if you will be patient."* 

 It was during the Florida drouth I have 

 been telling you about, with no water any- 

 where near, much less any means for getting 

 it to the ducks. I piled them out on the 

 sand in the sun in my frantic effort to re- 

 pair the mischief, but finally decided I would 

 have to foot it a mile further on and ask 

 neighbor Abbott to hitch up his mule and 

 get me to the repair shop and then get home 

 with the ducks and chickens, as they were 

 becoming very impatient in their respective 

 bags and boxes. I did some tall walking 

 that morning, and presented myself to Mrs. 

 Abbott with the sweat coming from every 

 l)ore, my hands so covered with automobile 

 grease that I could not even wipe off the 

 perspiration, and announced that I had not 

 a minute to spare on account of my ducks, 

 ducklings, and chicken^. Friend Abbott 

 hustled around with alacrity to get me out 

 of my trouble. He pulled my machine to 



* One of the poultry journals says young ducks 

 suffer, if deprived of water to drlnli, even one-hall 

 hour. 



