66 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



January, 1917 



something, and so I took my potato and 

 passed the rest to her on her return. Now, 

 it is easy and natural to give your good 

 wife the preference. I presume most of 

 you do it already unless in a fit of absent- 

 mindedness, as with myself, you, without 

 thinking, take the best and leave l:er the 

 poorest. Well, if we so far forget ourselves 

 as to give way to selfishness when 'no one 

 but the good wife is present, how is it when 

 you go out in the gTeat wide world f How 

 far do you carry out the second one of our 

 texts, " Thou shall love tliy neighbor as 

 thyself"? Oh, yes! I know we do by fits 

 and starts show that we love humanity. 

 Perhaps some of us suifer and lack at times 

 because we love humanity more than we 

 love ourselves or our families; but, not- 

 withstanding, selfishness and greed to a 

 gTeat extent rule the world. It is not only 

 food and drink, but passion for riches, 

 and constant watching to see that we get 

 the best end of the bargain, looking at the 

 affairs of the day from your own single 

 selfish standpoint. 



When I left my chickens down in Florida 

 the last of April, eggs were only 15 cents 

 a dozen. When our good grocer (and I am 

 glad to say he is a Christian man) said he 

 was sorry he could offer me only 15 cents a 

 dozen, and did not want them even at that 

 price, I shall have to admit that at first I 

 felt disappointed to think that that small 

 price would hardly pay for feed. But I 

 said inwardly, ''Get thee behind me, Satan;" 

 and then I looked \\p smilingly into the 

 face of my good friend Burnett and said, 

 " Mr. Burnett, don't you feel troubled or 

 worried. If you and I both lose some 

 money on account of the drop in the price 

 of eggs, we can rejoice in the thought that 

 what is our loss will be a gain to somebody 

 else. The poor hard-working people can 

 now have plenty of eggs in place of being- 

 obliged to go without them when they are 

 fifty cents a dozen, as they were last De- 

 cember." 



The editor of the Good Health CVnic 

 suggested a few days ago that while we 

 were raking and scraping and grasping to 

 pile up treasures here on earth we should 

 keep in mind or consider tliat when Mrs. 

 Hettie Green (the world's richest woman) 

 died she could not carry with her even a 

 two-cent postage stamp to put on a letter 

 " From flados to Heaven," or, as it might 

 happen, t'other way about. I think I have 

 read somewhere that a certain miser when 

 he died wanted all his money put into his 

 coffin near him. I cannot remember wheth- 

 er his friends carried out this crazy idea of 

 having the money he worshiped as near to 



him as possible and as long as possible or 

 not ; but it illustrates the point. 



By the way, how often we see parents 

 rake and scrape and save; and just as soon 

 as they are safely buried and out of the 

 way the children scatter the hard-earned 

 wealth to the four winds ! It really did 

 them harm. The parent, or perhaps par- 

 ents, in spending their life to save up, have 

 brought a curse on the children they i3ro- 

 fessed to love. In other words, the boys 

 and girls would have been mucli better off 

 to start with little or nothing, just as their 

 parents started. 



Let us consider now the first part of the 

 text — " What shall we eat "? " placing the 

 emphasis on the word what. I once knew 

 a man who was honest enough to say that 

 all he lived for was something to eat and 

 drink. He said he wanted the best things 

 to eat that the world affords, and probably, 

 also, the best things to drink. I do not 

 think there are many who would own up as 

 he did, but I am afraid there are a great lot 

 of us who in reality are not much better. 

 Over and over again physicians tell us that 

 tempting dishes, and many times expensive 

 dishes, are what keep doctors busy. Instead 

 of being satisfied with plain simple food 

 we must have a lot of the highest-priced 

 stuff to be in fashion — ice-cream, pies, and 

 cake, and expensive fruit — when we do not 

 need them; and, to make matters still woi*se, 

 something more to eat away on into the 

 night when the digestive apparatus ought 

 to have a chance to clear up and get every- 

 thing out of the way for the work to be 

 done on the morrow. For the past five 

 or six weeks I have been having just such 

 luscious loeaches and a little bit of cheese 

 for my afternoon meals at about five 

 o'clock; and Avith the nice peaches we have 

 now, I have often said to Mrs. Root, " Sue, 

 I would not swap my fruit supper for the 

 best menu the world can furnish." Some- 

 times when I for some good reason go to a 

 banquet or party, I eat a little of the repast 

 prepared so as not to attract attention. My 

 digestive apparatus rebels every time. Our 

 habits, especially when Nature is consulted 

 and has her way, are a good deal like the 

 chickens'. When the chickens get accus- 

 tomed to one particular program they make 

 a big protest if anything interferes. For 

 instance, I let my Eglantines out to liave a 

 run in the garden or in the cornfield every 

 day about four o'clock. Now, of course, 

 they have no timepiece; but if I do not get 

 around at tlie exact hour, or I might say the 

 exact minute, the whole tribe of chickens 

 will be up around the gate manifesting in 

 every way in their power their impatience 



