494 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



MayI 



served me in the same way. I gave him a 

 dime and he gave me back two nickels, and 

 the berries besides." Then a gentleman in 

 the back of the car looked over his change 

 and said the boy had given him a nickel too 

 much. I can readily understand how this 

 came about. The boy was discouraged 

 when he went through the car, and nobody 

 noticed him or his berries. When I took 

 hold as I did and emptied his pail he was a 

 little excited because he was afraid the car 

 might start. And then, too, it was a little 

 embarrassing having so many all around 

 him all at once with his unexpected good 

 fortune. I noticed his hands trembled in 

 his efforts to open his paper bags, and so I 

 opened them for him while he poured out 

 the berries. Besides, he trusted to the hon- 

 esty of the good men and women who were 

 gathered about him; and he was a rather 

 small boy for so much business all in a rush. 

 Last of all, he had not been through this 

 hard cold business world, and been taught 

 to look out for No. 1, by its hard knocks. 



My good friends, there is a worldful of 

 freckled-faced boys just like this one. They 

 have not yet learned to be greedy, and to 

 "want the whole earth," as the expression 

 goes. Some of the small boys in our cities 

 have been taught selfishness, even at an 

 early age; but the boys in the country— 

 that is, out in the woods— are, many of 

 them, as yet as God made them. I am sure 

 he told the truth when he said it would not 

 matter if I had taken the two cupfuls for 

 the nickel. The berries are very plenti- 

 ful in many of those woods in Northern 

 Michigan; and I kept thinking of those two 

 boys all day, and regretting that I could not 

 go with them to the woods to pick berries, 

 and then stand between them and the busy 

 world and help them sell the fruit. Then I 

 wondered if there was any church or Sun- 

 day-school around that little settlement call- 

 ed Merritt. Are there some good people 

 there trying to keep those boys' hearts pure 

 and unselfish? When I read in the papers 

 of the way in which our great men who are 

 occupying important places *are, one after 

 another, being found guilty of accepting 

 bribes, or planning to put money in their 

 own pockets instead of saving that which 

 belongs to the people (who voted to intrust 

 our public funds to their care and honesty) 

 then I wonder again if these boys that 

 now seem so honest and unselfish are going 

 to get into the whirlpool after all, where 

 all, or at least many of them, seem to be 

 giving life and health and strength toward 

 catching at straws; for the wealth of this 

 world is indeed straws compared to spiritual 

 gains. Jesus asked, " What shall it profit a 

 man if he shall gain the whole world and 

 lose his own soul?" No, I am not calling 

 everybody greedy and dishonest. I know 

 there are good men and good women, scores 

 of them. May God be praised there are so 

 many! and yet it saddens me to think that 

 these freckled-faced boys may in time be 

 trained so far away from childhood and 

 childish promptings \hat they may become 



only greedy tyrants. May God help us to 

 look after these little ones, and protect 

 them! May he give us more heart and zeal 

 in keeping up Sunday-schools, prayer-meet- 

 ings, and places of worship. 



The next verse after the one I have chos- 

 en for my text says, " But whoso shall of- 

 fend one of these little ones which believe 

 in me, it were better for him that a mill- 

 stone were hanged about his neck, and that 

 he were drowned in the depth of the sea." 

 Now, just think of it, friends. Arrayed 

 against the Sunday-schools and churches are 

 the saloons that are scattered through al- 

 most every little town in Northern Michi- 

 gan. These saloon-keepers would get every 

 boy away from the Sunday-schools if they 

 could, for a Sunday-school is opposed to a 

 saloon, and vice versa. They would teach 

 this young boy whom I have held up before 

 you to-day to drink and swear, and to use 

 improper language. They would deliberate- 

 ly place vile pictures before those innocent, 

 confiding blue eyes. They would fill his 

 childish heart with poison— a poison that 

 kills both body and soul. 



At the close of the bee-keepers' conven- 

 tion at Central Lake I was asked to give a 

 talk in one of the churches. When I said I 

 should like particularly to speak to the men 

 and boys, the ministers of the town with 

 whom I had become acquainted assured me 

 that I would get only women, or mostly 

 women, to come out during an evening on 

 week days; but I felt so anxious to have a 

 little talk with the men and boys that I pro- 

 posed inviting the business men. I did so, 

 and quite a few came out. I had planned, 

 also, to invite the boys; but when almost 

 every boy I met had a cigar or cigarette in 

 his mouth, courage failed. I said to the 

 ministers, " Surely the voting men of this 

 beautiful town would banish the saloons if 

 they had a fair chance and a fair vote." 

 The pastors sadly shook their heads. They 

 said the men who ran the mills were pretty 

 nearly all patrons of the saloons, and they 

 would be pretty sure to outnumber the 

 church and temperance people. The farm- 

 ers, God bless them! and most of the busi- 

 ness men of the town, were in favor of tem- 

 perance. Those who worked in the saw- 

 mills and lumber-camps are as a rule a 

 drinking set, and they rule the town in poli- 

 tics and morals. May be it is almost a 

 hopeless task to try to banish these evils 

 among men; but what about the boys who 

 have not yet started on the downward track? 

 May God help that httle band of W. C. T. U. 

 women at Central Lake, and in every other 

 place of like surroundings, to "be not weary 

 in well doing," holding fast to God's prom- 

 ise that " in due time we shall reap if we 

 faint not." 



LONG-RANGE WEATHER-FORECASTS. 



Perhaps some of the friends may think I 

 am having a good deal to say in regard to 

 Hicks and his weather almanac; but I firmly 

 believe it is the duty of every periodical 



