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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



right, with the blood of health tingling to 

 my fingers' ends. I suppose you know it is 

 true that I have all my life delighted in 

 riding hobbies; and sometimes it is not at all 

 to my taste to get off from my hobby and 

 attend to duty; and it was so in this case; 

 for when the shower blew over I felt as if 

 I would rather ride that automobile the rest 

 of the afternoon then to attend to any sort 

 of conference. 



The papers presented were excellent, but 

 I found it difficult to hold my mind down to 

 the business in question. There was a great 

 temptation to keep thinking of the trips 

 through the country I was going to make 

 soon. Another thing, although there was a 

 pretty good-sized audience the windows were 

 not kept open to let in fresh air, and so, of 

 course, I began to feel dull and stupid. I 

 had planned going home in the night after 

 the evening session, and going back next 

 morning before the opening of the second 

 day; but when I came to go over the road, 

 and saw the number of deep holes that one 

 might get into I knew night travel was out 

 of the question. By om.itting the evening ses- 

 sion I could go home by daylight and return 

 by daylight in the morning, and thus enjoy 

 two ten-mile rides. Then my conscience be- 

 gan asking me what excuse I had for being 

 absent in the evening. I was one of the 

 delegates appointed by our church, and was 

 expected to make a report of the proceed- 

 ings. Just a few hours before, I was inclin- 

 ed to criticise my grandson who did not feel 

 well enough to go to school ; and what had I 

 been planning as an excuse for being absent 

 in the evening ? First, I could tell those pres- 

 ent, who might object, that I had important 

 business at home. This was true to some 

 extent; but the whole truth was that the 

 younger members had charge of the "im- 

 portant business, " and I was not particularly 

 needed. Then before I knew it I was trying 

 to persuade myself that I did not feel well, 

 and there was a little truth in that. I did 

 not feel quite as well as I did when I was 

 riding that auto to escape the raindrops ; 

 but to say I did not feel well enough to be 

 present during the evening would be a rather 

 large exaggeration. Then Satan made up a 

 lot of other excuses. Do you think I make 

 a mistake in ascribing it to Satan ? Not a 

 bit of it, friends. He is opposed to religious 

 meetings of every kind; in fact, he will wax 

 eloquent on the theme if you give him the 

 least bit of encouragement or listen to him 

 at all. One of his " ear-marks" is that he 

 is every time and always opposed to God's 

 holy word, to all gatherings of church peo- 

 ple, and to every thing that bids us be con- 

 sistent and honest, and true to the dictates 

 of our conscience. I finally said, ' ' Get thee 

 behind me, Satan." 



One great reason why I did not "feel 

 well ' ' was that I had not planned for my 

 noonday nap; and the close air in the audi- 

 ence room made me feel quite badly for a 

 time. Pretty soon, however, we had a re- 

 cess, and the windows were opened so wide 

 that we had an abundance of cool air. Right 



after supper I got permission to swing a 

 lounge right before an open window (in a 

 pretty little home) so as to get the nap I 

 should have had right after dinner.* Some- 

 times I omit these afternoon naps because I 

 dislike to annoy people; but the half-hour of 

 sleep that I got with the cooling breezes 

 after the summer shower coming in at that 

 open window was worth to me— well, I can 

 not say how much. We older people have 

 no right to deprive these bodies of ours— 

 these God-given bodies— of the rest they 

 require to enable us to do our best. For 

 many long years I thought I had not time 

 for an afternoon nap; but I have discovered 

 it is a great saving of time. One hour after 

 the refreshing sleep is not only worth two 

 without it, but it enables me to do things I 

 could not have done without being rested up. 

 I enjoyed the evening session immensely. 

 I would not have missed it for any thing; 

 and one of the papers presented there I 

 expect to give on these pages very soon. 

 Of course, I had a part on the program, and 

 several things contributed to make me feel 

 nervous about it. For instance, it is exceed- 

 ingly embarrassing to me to be obliged to 

 make an audience wait. Yes, if I ask them 

 to wait until I turn over the leaves of my 

 Bible and find my text I am sure to become 

 flustered, and perhaps can not find the text 

 at all, even when it is right before my eyes. 

 Accordingly, I usually manage so as to have 

 the Bible open at the right place, or have 

 marks in the book if I want several texts, 

 and then make a pencil- mark around the 

 text I want to use. At this session, when it 

 came time for me to give my talk I discov- 

 ered the good brother who led the meeting 

 had laid the big Bible under the table on the 

 floor because there was not room for all 

 their papers on the little table. Now, I sup- 

 pose most of you will laugh at me when I 

 tell you that I worried a good deal because I 

 feared getting the Bible off the floor, and 

 finding the right place, would get my care- 

 fully planned talk all out of my head. It 

 troubled me so much that I prayed very 

 earnestly that the Holy Spirit might help 

 and sustain me, and enable me to speak as I 

 ought to speak and wanted to speak. And 

 herein comes one of those wonderful (to me) 

 answers to prayer. Now please take in the 

 situation. An hour or two before, I had been 

 meditating some excuse to get away from 

 the conference. Why, I was actually a good 

 deal like Jonah when the Lord told him to go 

 to Nineveh. May the Lord be praised that 

 I put away the temptation, and went 

 straight to Nineveh where God wanted me. 

 Then, instead of making excuses, and pre- 

 varicating, the Holy Spirit directed me to 

 tell the plain honest truth ; if I felt embar- 

 rassed and troubled, to be frank in the out- 

 set, and not try to conceal it. So my open- 

 ing address was, as nearly as I can remem- 

 ber, something as follows: 



*After having had that restful nap by the open win- 

 dow I took some of the little girls around town for a 

 ride, and finally gave the woman and her baby a little 

 ride, who was so kind as to give me a nice place to sleep. 



