1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1333 



have the fniit sent by express to Medina. 

 At that time peaches were selling at $5.00 a 

 bushel here at home, and not very good ones 

 at that, while in Traverse City they were on- 

 ly $1.50 to $2 00. 



It was raining when I left Medina, and it 

 was still raining 34 hours later when 1 reach- 

 ed the cabin. Weeds and tall grass were all 

 over the premises around the cabin door, etc. ; 

 and I felt lonely and homesick, especially as 

 Mrs. Root was not along to give orders about 

 tiding up and making the place look home- 

 like. When my eye caught sight of the 

 peach-trees, however, bending under their 

 loads of blood-red peaches I said, "But won't 

 I have fun now in gathering this fruit and 

 putting it in those neat little six-basket pack- 

 ages to be expressed back home to the chil- 

 dren and grandchildren I" 



Even though it was raining I pushed out 

 through the wet grass, selected a peach that 

 looked just right, and took a bite of it. To 

 my great surprise, however, the beauty was 

 all on the outside. While it was as yellow 

 as gold und^r the blood red skin, it was in- 

 sipid and tasteless. That branch, however, 

 was partly broken under the weight of fruit, 

 and I decided that that fact accounted for 

 its lack of flavor. But to my great disap- 

 pointment I found they were all alike. There 

 were seven trees bending with this beautiful 

 fruit, but not a peach that was worth ship- 

 ping home. 1 felt more homesick and dis- 

 couraged than ever. My little prayer came 

 quickly to my aid — "Lord, help me to learn 

 the lesson thou art striving to teach me." 

 No blame at all could attach to Mrs. Heim- 

 forth; for, when she wrote me, the peaches 

 were nicely colored up but had not begun to 

 get soft. She said she was greatly disap- 

 pointed when they came to taste the first 

 ones that ripened. As nearly as I can make 

 out from my recoi'd these seven trees were 

 of the variety named "Switzerland," and 

 most of the fruit began rotting as soon as it 

 was soft enough to eat. A good deal of the 

 fruit began to rot, even before it was really 

 ripe. 1 think it was this rot that spoiled the 

 flavor. Another thing, they had been having 

 a long drizzling rain for many days, with 

 little or no sunshine. This contributed, no 

 doubt, to the development of rot. But the 

 principal fault, probably, was the variety, 

 for the few trees of other varieties that first 

 began to ripen were as sweet and well-fla- 

 vored as any peaches I ever tasted. 



It was still raining that Wednesday night 

 as I sat by the fire in my lonely cabin. It 

 was prayer-meeting night at the little church 

 over among the hills, and I had looked for- 

 ward to meeting the dear friends there, but 

 Orville Heimforth, who stopped in, felt so 

 sure there would be no meeting on account 

 of the severe rain that I did not go over to 

 the chui'ch. In fact, I felt too tired to go 

 anywhere. But if there was a meeting that 

 night I shall feel guilty to think I did not 

 make a harder effort to get there. 



After figuring out that it would be some 

 time befoi'e any more peaches would be ripe, 

 and as there were particular reasons why I 



ought to be at home before Sunday, I decid- 

 ed next morning on a hurried trip back 

 home. In order to catch the morning train 

 for Manistee I was up before daylight, and 

 worked hard on the place until an hour be- 

 fore train time. Then I carried my heavy 

 suit-case something over a mile through the 

 woods, down into the valleys, and over the 

 hills toward the depot. All at once I push- 

 ed my hand in my side coat pocket where I 

 always carry my ticket, i stopped in the 

 middle of the road in dismay. My ticket 

 was not there I It was not in any of my 

 pockets. I opened my suit-case, unfolded 

 my overcoat, felt in all the pockets, but no 

 ticket. While I was busy I had hardly no- 

 ticed a big stalwart man who came across 

 the fields. He leaned on the fence, with a 

 comical look on his face, and said: 



"Mr. Root, it appears to me 1 read in 

 some magazine a while ago about a man who 

 told how many pockets he had. He said he 

 had a pocket for each particular thing; that 

 he had one particular pocket where he al- 

 ways put his railroad ticket when traveling. 

 He never put any thing else in that pocket, 

 and he never pvit his ticket in any other 

 pocket. The result was he was never oblig- 

 ed to stand confused before the conductor 

 while he felt first in one pocket and then in 

 another and then not find it." 



"My good friend, what paper was it in 

 which you read that account?" 



"Well, I do not remember now what mag- 

 azine it was. It was pretty well gotten up, 

 and I did not know but you might have no- 

 ticed it, and may be you are the fellow him- 

 self." 



Time was passing, and the train would 

 soon be coming. I felt too much vexed to 

 be civil to the man who so kindly put a big 

 joke on my poor self. I had, however, good 

 sense enough to stop then in the middle of 

 the road and say mentally, "Lord, help me 

 to learn the lesson thou art striving to teach 

 me." 



The minute that prayer was breathed, the 

 answer came. I went over and shook hands 

 with Mr. Miller, who had brought the ans- 

 wer, and thanked him for having given me 

 a just rebuke. I said, "My good friend, you 

 have solved the problem for me. When I 

 was doing the rough work around the cabin 

 this morning I put on another coat. While 

 at work something came up, and I wanted 

 to see my ticket. 1 went over to the window 

 where my best coat hung on a nail and took 

 the ticket out of the ticket-pocket. Before I 

 put it back in its place I crossed the room to 

 my secretary and then stupidly shoved it in- 

 to the ticket-pocket in my old coat. Just 

 before I started for the train I took off my 

 old coat and put on my best one. So you 

 see I did put my ticket in the proper pocket 

 just as I said in that article about pockets. 

 And now if you will excuse me I will see if 

 1 can not get back over to the cabin and still 

 not miss my train." 



Notwithstanding my prayer that should 

 have quieted my excitement and disappoint- 

 ment at my blunder, I was stirred up. I got 



