1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



611 



consume largely of the stores until there is 

 none within reach. If there is continued 

 cold, such bees will die by reason of starva- 

 tion and not because they freeze to death, 

 if I am correct. 



Bees wintered in their summer stands can 

 not leave their cluster during a severe cold 

 spell without becoming chilled. If it does 

 not warm up in a few days they will die. 

 If you look over outdoor-wintered colonies 

 in the spring, you will find bees here and 

 there dead that have strayed away from 

 the cluster in search of stores. They be- 

 came chilled, and in that state the little 

 vitality they have is suspended, and death 

 ensues. I do not know, but I have a theory 

 that a well-fed bee will stand chilling much 

 longer than one that has not had a good 

 square meal for some time. — Ed.] 



OUR 



HOMES, 



BY A.I. ROOT. 



Owe no man any thing, but to love one another.— Ro- 

 mans 13 : 8. 



If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peacea-, 

 biy with all men.— Romans 12 : 18. 



One very important matter in any home 

 is to preserve friendly relations with your 

 neighbors; and inasmuch as most quarrels 

 come from differences in deal, Mrs. Root and 

 I have all our lives practiced or tried to 

 practice paying cash down, so that every 

 deal may be finished up as far as possible as 

 it comes up day by day. When we were 

 first married I think, however, we tried run- 

 ning accounts at the groceries and meat- 

 markets, but at this time there was great 

 need of the strictest economy; and on this 

 account we very soon decided we could make 

 our scant earnings go further by paying 

 cash than by running up an account. And 

 by the way, friends, I have got into such 

 a habit of asking the price of every thing 

 I purchase that I presume it will follow me 

 all my life. No doubt I am laughed at; but 

 I can stand being laughed at if by so doing 

 I can set a good example before the younger 

 ones. For instance, I never stop at a hotel 

 without asking the price of lodging and 

 breakfast. Oftentimes I see people with 

 comparatively small means pay more than I 

 do for the same accommodation just be- 

 cause they did not make a price beforehand. 

 Many hot- Is have different prices for differ- 

 ent accommodations. In the city a clerk 

 will say a room will be 75 cents on the first 

 floor above. But you can have the same 

 kind of room exactly for 50 cents, by going 

 up another stairway. Now, I do not know 

 how you feel about it, but, even if I am 65, 

 I can afford to go upstairs and down for 25 

 cents. I have been told it looks small, and as 

 if I were hard up, to ask about prices. I can't 

 help it. The saddest part of it is, that some 

 hotels will give you the very same room, no 

 matter whether you pay 50 or 15 cents. 



But we are not going to talk about hotels 

 just now. Of course, there are good Chris- 

 tian men in the hotel business, as well as 

 those who have little or no conscience. 



What I wanted to speak of particularly in 

 this talk is purchasing the every-day com- 

 modities of life— food, clothing, etc. Mrs. 

 Root and I still pay cash down for milk, 

 butter, eggs, groceries, meat, fish, etc. The 

 younger ones say it is a lot of bother to 

 make change so many times. That is true; 

 but Mrs. Root has three little dishes— one 

 to hold pennies, one for nickels, another con- 

 tains dimes. Quarters and half-dollars she 

 keeps in her pocketbook. When the boy 

 brings the meat, and tells her the amount, 

 she can take up the right change almost in 

 an instant, and the transaction is done with. 



On page 510 I spoke about the advent of 

 the telephone, and its effects on our rela- 

 tions with our neighbors, especially those 

 who supply our daily needs. It surely is a 

 wonderful thing, and we ought to thank 

 God oftener than we do, that the housewife 

 can stand right at her kitchen table and ask 

 the dealer what he has to-day, what the 

 price is, and when he will be making a trip 

 in her neighborhood. My friend, if you do 

 not do that last thing, let me beg of you, 

 out of a neighborly and Christian spirit to- 

 ward your grocer, that you avoid asking 

 him to make a long trip to bring some need- 

 ful article. Well, the younger members of 

 the family say you not only save time by 

 paying bills monthly or quarterly, but you 

 avoid having to pay for things twice. This 

 last matter I have put in italics is to be the 

 main point of my talk to-day; but before we 

 get to that I wish to discuss this matter of 

 ordering things sent down without inquiring 

 the price and putting down the money. 



My friends, I have stood on both sides of 

 the counter. In fact, I have been on one 

 side or the other pretty much all my life, 

 and I expect to be there yet as one who 

 either sells or buys; and I discovered long 

 ago (or at least I think I did), that you 

 make a big saving by not only carefully in- 

 quiring the price, but by carefully examin- 

 ing the article before you put down the 

 money. May be you will say I ought to be 

 ashamed of myself when I acknowledge 

 that, if you are buying something of me, 

 it will be better for you to ask the price 

 than simply to order it and say nothing 

 about the price. I know there are lots of 

 Christian men in business, and there are 

 men who will look out for the interests of 

 an absent customer just as well as or may 

 be better than they would if he were pres- 

 ent during the deal. But for all that, when 

 you send an order anywhere for something 

 you want, and say nothing about the price, 

 you will, as a rule, be charged more than if 

 you describe the article and ask for the best 

 figures before purchasing. 



The present age is somewhat to blame for 

 this state of affairs. We hear about mil- 

 lionaires who throw down a bill or a coin and 

 say, "No matter about the change. " In such 

 a case, of course, you are at liberty to take 50 



