1018 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



be given on Sunday, say after Sunday-school 

 or other religious service ? 



Grand Traverse Bay is about half a mile 

 through the woods from our cabin ; and as 

 soon after our arrival as the dinner things 

 could be gotten away the boys were off in 

 high glee for the Bay. The great number 

 of springs along the hills, that empty into 

 the Bay, make its waters of crystal clear- 

 ness, and it was hard work to get the boys 

 to come home, even at mealtime, so attract- 

 ive was their sport in the water. Straw- 

 berries are at their best here in July; and 

 along about the 10th a neighbor invited us 

 to come over and help ourselves. It was 

 nearly two miles, and the boys, with some 

 diffidence, informed me they had a " raft " 

 that would take me there. The materials 

 were logs and other driftwood from the 

 beach, held together with some large spikes 

 they found in our barn. A potato-box 

 formed my seat in the center of the raft, 

 and a canvas awning kept off the July sun, 

 while a couple of barelegged boys in bath- 

 ing-suits waded on the white sandy bottom 

 and furnished the propelling power. I play- 

 ed I was a " sultan " of olden time " sitting 

 in state" while willing slaves "rushed" 

 my craft to destination. When I reached 

 the neighbor's, however, I looked more like 

 a "shipwrecked mariner" than either sul- 

 tan or pasha, for not only were my shoes 

 and stockings soaked, but I was pretty well 

 soaked up to the knees. Strawberries? 

 Well, I should say! Mr. Palmer said he 

 lost over fifty bushels because he could not 

 get pickers for either love or money. We 

 saved a part of the fifty bushels when they 

 (Warfields) were just lying in heaps on the 

 ground, and dead ripe. 



Well, the boys were having so much fun 

 in the water, and with some newly found 

 neighbors, that, no doubt, they found it 

 hard to stay away from the Bay on Sunday. 

 After Sunday-school (we have preaching 

 only on alternate Sundays), while I was 

 having my after-dinner nap they ventured 

 down to the Bay, and a boy they knew said 

 he had got to take a borrowed boat home, 

 and they could ride as well as not, and final- 

 ly they managed to do more traveling (and 

 visiting) on Sunday than on the week days, 

 not getting back until it was so late I was 

 really alarmed, for I hadn't the remotest 

 idea as to where I should go to find them. 

 Their boyish excuse for not getting permis- 

 sion was, they didn't want to wake me up. 

 I didn't scold very much (some of you may 

 think not enough) ; but I had prayed over 

 the matter, and the Holy Spirit admonished 

 me that I needed to be careful about hold- 

 ing my "grip" on the boys, and that said 

 grip must— first, last, and always -be a 

 "loving grip." 



When Sunday came again I planned to re- 

 mind them the first thing in the morning 

 that it was my request they should not go at 

 all to the Bay on God's holy day. We had 

 been having hard work all the week to get 

 one of them up to breakfast; and as it was 

 Sundav I thought 1 would let him have a 



good rest, especially as he had played hard 

 the dcty before. Imagine my surprise, when 

 1 began to call, to be told by the otner one 

 he got up and went out very early. If you 

 haven't learned it already, let me inform 

 you that a boy of fifteen often shows more 

 judgment and consistency than you might 

 expect; but when jou least expect it he 

 shows boy sense and nothing else. After 

 breakfast I went down to the Bay to hunt 

 him up. He was coming along unconcerned, 

 dragging a log chain. His explanation was, 

 their raft got grounded so they had to have 

 a team to pull it out. The owner of the 

 team was so busy week days, the only time 

 he could work for the boys, free of charge, 

 was Sunday morning. Now, this boy— this 

 boy whom I love, mind you— argued with me 

 all the way home to prove to me that there 

 was nothing inconsistent in his getting up 

 earlier Sunday morning to help pull out that 

 raft before he went to Sunday-school. I 

 didn't lose my grip, however, for both boys 

 of their own accord went to Sunday-school 

 in the morning and to preaching again in 

 the afternoon, and the church is more than 

 a mile (over big hills) from our home. 



A big circus has just been through here. 

 I felt so sure its influence would not be good 

 over the young members of our little church 

 (or old ones either for that matter) tbat I 

 spoke of it in prayer- meeting. I did not 

 advise telling the children they must not go; 

 but it seems I was enabled to give such 

 counsel that very few wanted to go. Our 

 boys did not even care to go to see the "pa- 

 rade," and they tell me that several of 

 their companions who had a chance to go 

 chose to have a holiday at home. 



Perhaps you would like to know how the 

 cooking turned out under the management 

 of a boy of 14. Well, he not only learned to 

 get up a good square meal, but by some 

 careful and patient drilling on my part, as 

 well as the instructions his mother had 

 given him, he became able to wash the 

 dishes and put them away, and slick up the 

 kitchen generally, almost as well as grand- 

 ma herself could do it. Not only that, he 

 washed his dish-cloths, wiping-cloth, nap- 

 kins, etc., and hung them out to dry, and 

 kept every thing in up-to-date shape. The 

 other boy did not take so kindly to cooking, 

 but he trudged faithfully every day half a 

 mile through the woods and over the hills 

 after bread, butter, milk, etc. For a spell 

 it took a ten- cent loaf of bread for each 

 meal, and a chunk of honey cut out of a 

 frame from one of those Caucasian queen- 

 rearing bee- hives, once a day or oftener. 

 When we went to bed tired out at night, 

 the boys were at first much inclined to drop 

 wearing apparel on the floor, or in "any 

 old place;" but with plenty of nails in the 

 rough board walls I finally persuaded them, 

 even in the night time, to keep things 

 "decently and in order." 



With a prayer that this Home paper may 

 enable some other parent (or grandparent) 

 to "hold his grip' on these boys in their 

 teens, and still guide them in the "straight 



