GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



and grandchildren. But the question is 

 coming and creeping upon us day by day, 

 " What shall we do should the great Father 

 permit us to remain here long enough till 

 somebody has to care for us ? " While this 

 matter is in my mind I keep thinking of 

 Jesus' words to Peter. Let me quote: 



When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and 

 vvalkedst whither thou wouldest ; but when thou shalt 

 lie old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and an- 

 other shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou 

 wouldest not. 



When we get so old as to be in some 

 respects a burden to our good and devoted 

 children (two boys and three girls) are we 

 going to be a trouble and a worry to them? 

 Shall we become cross and cranky because 

 we cannot have every thing just exactly our 

 own way? How many of you whose eyes 

 are resting on this page have thought of 

 that? Look about you and see. Consider 

 the old people whom God has permitted to 

 be perhaiJS eighty or even ninety years old. 

 Are they usually, all of them, still a blessing 

 to the world? Are they helping along the 

 great wave of progress toward God's king- 

 dom? Old people have notions — queer no- 

 lions. I feel it coming on me already. 

 They get to be deaf, like myself. It is not 

 only a task to make them hear but to make 

 them understand; and they are forgetful. 

 You have to tell them things over and over. 

 Saddest of all, they sometimes lose their 

 mind, and become idiotic or imbecile. I 

 have talked, perhaps, in a joking way about 

 living to be a hundred years old; but I am 

 hoping and praying and striving to avoid 

 any thing that might lead me to be a burdeii 

 on society or on my friends and relatives. 



The question has come up half a dozen 

 times quite recently as to what shall be done 

 with old people as they become helpless and 

 hard to take care of. Shall they be sent to 

 the county infirmary? Years ago we could 

 hire a man or woman at a reasonable price 

 to stay with such old people; but it is a far 

 more difficult matter now. Suppose some 

 old fatiier or mother, or father-in-law or 

 mother-in-law, becomes a burden on some 

 good woman who already has a family. 

 Shall she wear herself out and go down to 

 a premature grave just because the family 

 or the people are too proud to let the old 

 lady or the old man be cared for by the 

 county, or, say, at some "old ladies' home"? 

 I am not going to answer this question. The 

 old ladies' homes liave done wonderful 

 things, to my knowledge, in taking good 

 care of old ladies dui'ing their declining 

 years. 



There is one point I did not touch on as 

 I intended to. Suppose this old mother does 

 not recognize a single one of her children 



or grandchildren. Suppose she keeps say- 

 ing over and over, "I want to go home; I 

 want to go home." Suppose, if she is not 

 watched every minute, she will get away so 

 the whole neighborhood has to turn in and 

 hunt her up. If she does not know any of 

 her friends or relatives at all, would she not 

 be just as happy and contented — perhaps 

 more so — in an old ladies' home where she 

 could have the care of experienced and well- 

 known trained nurses? But, hold on a bit. 

 There is another side to this. The papers 

 tell us of hired help in these asylums for 

 old iDeople who have not only been guilty of 

 abusive language but even of blows and 

 kicks and bruises because these old friends 

 have queer and unreasonable notions. 



Our text says: "Honor thy father and 

 thy mother." We have just been talking 

 about living to a good old age; and God's 

 holy book tells us one of the requirements 

 for longevity is to honor our father and 

 mother; and I take it that it means other 

 people's fathers and mothers as well as our 

 own. What are we going to do with all the 

 fathers and mothers? What are we doing 

 with them? What will be done with them? 

 1 said to myself recently, " A. I. Root, what 

 are you going to do when you get to be too 

 old to take care of yourself? What are you 

 going to do when the good wife gets to be 

 too old, or when God has taken her away so 

 that she can no longer spend her life and 

 strength in anticipating your every want? " 

 May God help us, when that time comes, to 

 practice what we preach. I will tell you 

 one thing I think I shall want; and that is, 

 a garden and some chickens, just as long as 

 I am able to work in the garden with a light 

 little hoe. Right near the garden, and ad- 

 joining it I want a comfortable place to 

 take my nap. In fact, I have such a garden 

 and such a place to sleep already. When it 

 is too cool I have a little "sun parlor" where 

 I can lie down in the sun.* When i.t is too 

 warm in the sun parlor I have a cot in a 

 cool basement just back of the sun parlor. 

 So you see when I am chilly I can lie down 

 in the warm room. When the weather is 

 oppressively warm I have a cool retreat. 

 Mrs. Root fixed the cool sleeping-place for 

 me yesterday, June 8, for it was 94 in the 

 shade a good part of the day. 



Now, elderly people are apt to get untidy. 



* By the way, let me tell you that I never go into 

 that sun parlor or cooler room unless I am tired out 

 from muscular work in the garden, or with letters 

 and correspondence in the oftice. I make it a point 

 never to think of taking a nap because I have noth- 

 ing to do or because I feel " lazy." My naps are 

 taken when I am pretty well tired out and nefid 

 rest; and it is certainly a benefit to me to take a 

 little rest before I sit down to dinner. Sometimes 

 when business calls I eat a meal when pretty well 

 tired out, because there is no time for napping; but 

 it does not do me nearly as much good. 



