December, 1920 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



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CONSTANCE 



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SOME years 

 ago an un- 

 worthy word 

 was creeping 

 into use in a way 

 that threatened 

 to spoil some of 

 the spirit of the 

 most beautiful 

 holiday of the 

 whole year, that holiday which is dearest 

 when all the old customs and traditions are 

 preserved unchanged. That word was "ex- 

 change" when applied to Christmas giving. 

 Some of us "exchanged" gifts with so large 

 a circle of friends that the Christmas plan- 

 ning instead of being a joy was becoming a 

 burden to the busy woman. 



But as a result of the press of work dur- 

 ing the war, the shortage of household help, 

 the old h. c. of 1., that scapegoat for every- 

 thing, or merely a reaction against a good 

 thing carried too far, there is a change for 

 the better in the observance of Christmas 

 giving. Where we once thought it neces- 

 sary to spend time and money every year in 

 the selection of gifts for friends who did 

 not need them in the least, we now send 

 cards with a bit of appropriate sentiment, 

 and we spend our time making and selecting 

 gifts for the poor, the lonely, whether rich 

 or poor, and the children, bless their dear 

 hearts. Of course there are times when we 

 wish especially to remember some friend, 

 but that need not start an "exchange" of 

 gifts annually. 



Also I believe husbands and wives should 

 not forget each other on Christmas day, al- 

 tho it may be necessary to make the gifts 

 simple and inexpensive. The amount of love 

 which accompanies the gift is not at all in 

 proportion to the amount of money spent. 



DOES the fact that I have been a mother 

 for 21 years and a lover of children 

 for a much longer time entitle me to 

 say just a few words about gifts for chil- 

 dren? I am going to risk it. 



In the first place, if you really wish to 

 please the children rather than their par- 

 ents and older friends, give them toys which 

 provide them with something to do either 

 with their hands or brains rather than easily 

 broken mechanical toys. In the first class are 

 building blocks of all kinds, such structural 

 toys as the "Model Builder" or "Mec- 

 cano," tool chests, workbaskets well equip- 

 ped, dolls, materials for wardrobes, sets of 

 dishes and cooking utensils for small girls, 

 skates, express wagons, sleds, bicycles, books 

 for either boys or girls, and for older boys 

 apparatus to help in the study of electricity 

 or chemistry. Thru the gift of a telescope 

 and several books on astronomy a boy I 

 know learned more about the stars and con- 

 stellations than many a college graduate 

 knows who has studied the subject. That 

 same bov gmused himself for days at a time 



OUR FOOD PAGE 



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ROOT BOVDEN 

 y Piierden) 



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with partly 

 worn-out electric 

 batteries and 

 did wonderful 

 things with them 

 before he could 

 talk plain. Later 

 he was the hap- 

 piest boy in the 

 whole United 

 States one Christmas morning Avhen his older 

 brother presented him with an outfit of test 

 tubes, chemicals, etc. I believe the average 

 normal child with unperverted tastes loves 

 to acquire knowledge, and if you give him 

 half a chance he will educate himself faster 

 than the schools can do it, altho without the 

 schools he would probably grow one-sided. 

 And children love constructive play. When 

 our older son was a very tiny boy my father 

 gave him a present which has amused more 

 children for longer periods than any other 

 toy I ever saw. It consisted of 250 plain 

 wooden blocks 1 inch thick by 2 inches wide 

 and 4 inches long. Notice that twice the 

 thickness is the width and twice the width 

 tlie length, the proportions of the common 

 brick. Those blocks have always been kept 

 in a closet off the playroom, and they are 

 still there, altho the youngest of our three 

 children is 13 years of age and we are try- 

 ing to remember to call the playroom the 

 library. There is almost no limit to the 

 number of interesting things a child can do 

 with those blocks, and judging from my own 

 children and their friends I do not see how 

 a family could be brought up without them. 

 The child whom I pity on Christmas day 

 is not a member of a poor family who can 

 afford to give him only two or three inex- 

 pensive but wisely chosen gifts, but the 

 child whose parents, grandparents, aunts, 

 uncles, and friends vie with each other to 

 find wonderful toys to please a child who 

 has never known the joys of "make- 

 believe," that sad sight, a blase baby. 



ONE of the most acceptable gifts I ever 

 received was a beautiful brown work- 

 basket made of the long pine needles 

 of Florida and filled with delicious Florida 

 pecans. What doubled my pleasure in the 

 gift was the fact that the friend who sent 

 it made the basket with her own hands, and 

 the pecans were raised in her husband 's or- 

 chard. 



Noi all of us can make pine-needle baskets 

 nor raise pecans, but most of us know how 

 to do something well enough to give pleasure 

 to our friends. There is nothing much more 

 acceptable to a honey lover than a section of 

 perfect comb honey or a jar of clear ex- 

 tracted honey produced by your own bees. 

 A number of years ago, wishing to remem- 

 ber a friend who had moved to a distant 

 city we sent him a Christmas box of honey. 

 This consisted of a section of comb honey, 

 a jar of extracted, a brick of fine granulated 



