AUGUST 15, 1916 



749 



" Jimmie Tlilherl led the prayer-meeting', 

 did 3'on say ? " 



Slie smilingly assured me that it was 

 Jimmie himself. Let me explain a little. 

 Years ago, when I found friend Hilbert up 

 among the hills, there was quite a family 

 of Hilberts. The two youngest, Jimmie and 

 Gladj's, were not only the life of the house- 

 hold, but sometimes they kept the household 

 pretty busy in getting them out of the 

 scrapes they got into. There was but little 

 ditferenee in their ages; but they were al- 

 ways off together somewhere. One after- 

 noon Jimmie got lost ; and as he was only 

 three or four years old there was quite a 

 stir in the neighborhood until toward night 

 they found him away over the hills curled 

 up in a fence-corner on the grass, sound 

 asleep. He had evidently wandered away, 

 got tired of trying to find his way home, and 

 concluded to "rest up" while the neigh- 

 bors hunted for him. Jimmie was always 

 inclined to be a little wild and reckless, but 

 still he loved the wildwood and the farm. 

 A few j^ears ago his father got into the 

 " moving-picture business," and he went 

 around from town to town, taking his fam- 

 ily with him. But Jimime got tired, and 

 wanted to go back home. It may not be 

 true; but one of the neighbors said Jimmie 

 got so homesick to get back among the 

 woods and hills that he said that if be had 

 got to stay in the picture business all his 

 life he would kill himself and have it done 

 with. 



As Jimmie grew from boyhood to man- 

 hood I felt anxious for his future, and had 

 several talks with him. Two years ago his 

 father got a motor truck to carry his fruits 

 and garden stuff to market, and Jimmie 

 soon learned to run that truck with wonder- 

 ful skill, and seemed to enjoy it. When 

 good Mrs. Wilson told me that wild Jimmie 

 had actually led the. prayer-meeting I felt 

 that part of my prayer as I walked thru 

 the woods had been answered already. 

 Gladys, that used to be only a baby, full of 

 mischief, was now a bright grown-up wom- 

 an, or approaching womanhood. She re- 

 minded me so much of her sister Alice that 

 I could hardly keep the tears back. When 

 I expressed my pleasure to hear that Jim- 

 mie not only attended prayer-meeting, but 

 had led the meeting, she said, " Why, Mr. 

 Root, I too have led the prayer-meeting." 

 I should not have been so much surprised 

 to learn that Gladys led the meeting, be- 

 cause the girls and women folks more 

 naturally gravitate toward prayer-meeting 

 and all religious gatherings; and may God 

 be praised that it is so. 



After dinner, Jimmie took a load of cber- 



ly-pickers up to the cherry-orchard, and I 

 went along. J told his father I wanted to 

 see the cherry-trees. Yes, that was true; 

 but T also Avanted to have a good talk with 

 Jimmie all by himself. Good Mrs. Wilson 

 said that, while they were members of the 

 F^ndeavoi' Society, and led the prayer-meet- 

 ing, neither Jimmie nor Gladys had as yet 

 united with the church. I had got some- 

 thing of a promise from Gladys, and I 

 wanted some sort of pledge from Jimmie. 

 When T told him how glad I should be to 

 know that he was a member of that little 

 Bingham church he finally said something 

 like this: 



" Mr. Root, I am not ready to promise 

 you, just now, that I Avill unite with the 

 Bingham church; but this I will promise: 

 I will say that, whatever happens, I will 

 stick to' God." 



He gave me his hand on it, and I felt 

 that such a boyish promise as that perhaps 

 meant more, before God as a witness, than 

 a promise to unite with any particular sect 

 or body of Christians. I think of it again 

 and again, and feel glad and happy. "I 

 promise, whatever happens, to stick to 

 God." Bear reader, do you know of any 

 better pledge given by a boy just merging 

 from boyhood into manhood? 



By appointment I met at the Hilbert 

 home Mrs. Erna Rorabacher, an older 

 married daughter of the Hilbert family. 

 " Erna," as we always called her, was a 

 little older than Alice. She now lives in 

 Wisconsin. Some time ago I sent her one 

 of my little tracts, " How to be Happy 

 when People Abuse You." I think she wrote 

 to tell me she had just united with the 

 church at Green Bay, Wis. ; and when she 

 showed the tract to her pastor he preached 

 a sermon with that tract as a text, and 

 Erna stood at the church door after the 

 services and gave each worshipjDer one of 

 the tracts. She said to me, " Mr. Root, you 

 will never know, in this Avorld, how much 

 good those tracts have done."* 



* Friend Hilbert is still a beekeeper ; and as I 

 stood before the door my eye caught a glimpse of 

 toward a hundred hives tiered up, most of them two 

 stories high, some three stories, and a few, if I 

 remember correctly, even four stories. V\''hen I ask- 

 ed friend Hilbert if we were to understand those 

 four stories were full of honey, he got his smoker 

 and took out comb after comb tilled and sealed with 

 beautiful white honey. To see if I could detect the 

 source I took my knife and cut out a mouthful 

 from one of the great white slabs; and I think I 

 never tasted any more luscious honey. It was prob- 

 ably a mixture of clover and wild red raspberry; 

 and, by the way, according to my notion there is no 

 better honey in the world than the raspberry honey 

 of northern Michigan. Friend Hilbert's plan is to 

 leave the honey all on the hive, and do his extract- 

 ing after the season is over or nearly so. In this 

 way it is most perfectly ripened, and superior, of 

 course, to the unripened. and the job can all be 

 finished up at once. With the present price of 

 sugar, these great heavy slabs of honey are the 



