1883 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



279 



a splendid penman, but of very great profi- 

 ciency in ornamental penmanship and draw- 

 ing, and did, in truth, go out into the world 

 and teach both branches quite successfully. 

 Well, our factory where we are now doing 

 business was built by jSlr. Gray ; and when 

 he built it I protested almost all through 

 because he and the masons would make 

 every thing so massive, and with such 

 strength ; but strong as it was, the building 

 is now creaking under its weight of mer- 

 chandise ; the floors are sinking, and the 

 ceiling is cracking ; and Mr. Gray says, as 

 he looks it over, *■• Why, no wonder, Amos, 

 your buildings break down. Whoever 

 thought of loading every available spot with 

 such piles and piles, and tons and tons of 

 papers, books, machinery, goods, and traps 

 of all sizes and shapes V Now, you just see 

 if I don't make this next new building 

 strong enough. I know what you want to 

 do with it now." Isn't it a pleasant thing, 

 children, to find people in the world who 

 can do so many things you can't do ? And 

 is it not pleasant, also, to find that the very 

 things that make us different from each oth- 

 er enable us at the same time to be so help- 

 ful to one another ? 



VIRGIIi'S treatise: on BESS. 



Continued, 



ALMOST TEMPTED TO WRITE A FIFTH GEORGIC ABOUT 

 GARDENING. 



ND were I not about to furl the sail 

 Oq the last quarter of my fourfold tale, 

 Well toward conclusion coming even now, 

 And turning to the land my hastening prow. 

 Perchance rich gardens I would pause to sing, 

 What cunning care doth forth their beauties bring'; 

 And the rose gardens blooming twice a year 

 That by the city Pesti do appear; 

 And how the endive thrives in gentle rills, 

 And how green banks the bee-sousrht parsley fills. 

 Tangled among the growing herbs I'd tell 

 How doth the cucumber his belly swell; 

 All these I'd sing, nor would I words forbear 

 How the late daffy' dons his leafy hair; 

 The bear's-foot, with its gentle bending bough. 

 And ivy gray I would not disavow, 

 Nor yet the myrtle, loving well to grow 

 Along the banks where peaceful waters flow. 



THE OLD MAN OF CILICIA. 



For I remember, that in former hours 

 Under Taranto's lofty southern towers 

 I saw where its dark river dews the plain 

 Just ripening with its fields of yellow grain 

 An aged man from far Cilician strand (1) 

 On a few acres of abandoned land: 

 It was not fit for vines, too poor to plow. 

 Its herbage would not feed a sheep or cow, 

 And yet he made a garden 'mong the thorns 

 Rare as the wealth and taste of kings adorns, (2) 

 Planting verbenas and the poppies white. 

 And the white lilies clad in snowy light. 

 Though late at night returning, at his will 

 With unbought feasts his tables he could fill. (3) 

 He was the first to pluck the rose in spring 

 And fruit in fall; and when as cruel king 

 E'en winter reigned and rove the rocks with cold, 



And did with ice the flow of streams withhold. 



The leafy hyacinth he cut e'en then, 



The summer zephyrs loath to come again. 



THE OLD man's StTCCESS WITH BEES. 



Therefore this same old man was first to be 

 Rich with young brood of bees, and first was he 

 With many swarms, (I) and first from shivered combs 

 To press the honey forth that stirs and foams; (5) 

 And he had linden-trees, and also pine. 

 Most fruitful of the pollen-dust benign. 



UTILITY OF BEES IN FERTILIZING FLOWERS. 



As clothed itself with flowers each fruitful tree 

 So many fruits in autumn would there be. (6) 

 He too transplanted far-grown elms in rows 

 And pear-trees old, and even bearing sloes. 

 And plane-trees large enough to yield a shade. (7) 

 For things like these my space too small is made; 

 I pass, and unto other pens resign 

 The task of teaching thus in tuneful line. 



(1) Paul the apostle was bora in Cilieia, and the old 

 man whom Virgil saw making such a success of 

 gardening and bee-keeping was born in Cilieia toi). 

 Isn't it nice? The great Roman general Pompey 

 made war on the Cilician people, took a lot of them 

 prisoners, carried them away a thousand miles, and 

 let them loose in the region about Taranto. You 

 can easily find the place on your map. Italy is like 

 a great boot, and the gulf of Taranto is the little 

 gulf between the heel and the ball of the foot. Our 

 nice old man seems to have been one of these cap- 

 tives. 



(3) This is as good as " try, try again" for the little 

 folks. Who's going to give up and say he can't do 

 any thing in the world after this? Here is a man 

 who is old, a prisoner, in a strange land, with no 

 friends, no money, no any thing; but just see how 

 he pitches in and succeeds. He "tackles on " to a 

 piece of land that nobody would own because it was 

 so worthless, makes a beautiful garden of it, and 

 goes to keeping bees. God looked down approving- 

 ly from heaven, I think; at any rate, he sent the 

 story of the old man's doings two thousand years 

 down the ages, to teach resolution to the children of 

 another continent. 



(3) Right, or not? Answer, ye clerks, and all ye 

 hash-mumblers in tucked-up boarding-houses. 



(4) When bees have wintered finely, and are well 

 cared for in the spring, they swarm early; but if 

 they have just barely got through with their lives, 

 why, then they swarm late. The old Cilician's bees 

 swarmed early. 



(5) Notice once more the author's well-informed 

 accuracy. He knew that honey, if harvested as 

 early as possible, and without waiting for it to ripen, 

 would foam. 



(6) Whoal whoa! Gently, dear Virgil, or the good 

 folks won't be able to believe you; and then may be 

 they will go to the other extreme, and say it is all a 

 humbug about bees making fruit-trees bear. You 

 see, if our apple-trees should have a big apple for 

 every blossom, the whole thing would come down 

 "ker-smash," flat to the ground. 



(7) How touching this is! It seems as if the old 

 man was too far advanced in years to hope to realize 

 much from young trees. Nothing daunted, he went 

 for the big ones — and succeeded. How many of the 

 girls and boys that read Juvenile Gleanings are 

 going to meet the dilflculties of life with the un- 

 conquerable spirit of the brave old man of Cilieia? 



Last month I wrote that I didn't have to plant 

 pines. Well, what do you think turned up and hap" 



