282 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



May 



sometimes a bold and daring robber. There is one 

 tbing about it, however, which will always prevent 

 it from making very great success as a burglar, and 

 that is, its voice — it can never keep quiet; besides, 

 it always has a different note when engaged in rob- 

 bery, so that we shall never need the burglar-alarm 

 to protect us from the ravages of the apis. 



The apis doesn't lie dormant during winter, like 

 some of the lower specimens of the brute creation, 

 but it usually keeps pretty quiet in cold weather; 

 and as the plints furnish neither pollen nor nectar 

 at that season of the year, it is obliged to store up 

 its food in summer, or else it will starve in winter. 



The apis has six legs and four wmgs, and a very 

 long tongue, which is divided into a great many 

 parts and adapted to moving in all directions, and is 

 to the apis what the trunk of the elephant is to him. 



The apis has no tusks like the elephant, nor teeth 

 like the fox; but it has two strong flexible mandi- 

 bles, which fill the place of both teeth and jaws. 

 These mandibles work sidewise, instead of up and 

 down, as in most animals. 



It uses these mandibles to cut through hard sub- 

 stances, and seldom to chew food with, and rarely 

 as a weapon of defense. It has a weapon, something 

 like that at the "business end" of a wasp, which it 

 usually brings into action when "combatting the 

 foe." 



The apis does not belong to the mammalia species 

 of animals, but feeds its young from mouth to 

 mouth, like the pigeon and the dove. It can not fly 

 quite as far as the dove, but is a rapid flyer, and 

 goes a great way to procure its food. It does not 

 carry its food in its beak, like the bird, nor in its 

 jaws, like the ant, but swallows it down into the gul- 

 let, from which it is capable of withdrawing it at a 

 " moment's notice;" or, if the food be of such a na- 

 ture as not to be readily swallowed, it will carry it 

 on its legs, as the hawk and the eagle carry their 

 prey in their talons. 



The apis has a common name with which most per- 

 sons are familiar. This name is composed of three 

 letters, two of which are exactly alike ; the other is 

 the second letter of the alphabet. 



M. A. Jackson. 



Bangor, Marshall Co., Iowa, April 21, 1883. 



KIND WORDS FROM A ^' BliASTED 

 HOPER." 



FROM 18 TO 8, $150.00 OUT, AND NO BEES, NOR HON- 

 EY EITHER. 



IT is with great grief that I write these few lines 

 to you, to let you know how I am troubled now, 

 for I think I am a good object for Blasted 

 Hopes; for my bees are all dead. After uniting in 

 the fall, 18 to 8, and then losing the 8, I think it 

 about time to quit trying to keep bees. I com- 

 menced keeping bees in 1S76, and from that time till 

 now I have invested over $150.00. This may seem 

 big or fishy, but I have the figures to show for them- 

 selves. Now, my object in writing this is to let you 

 know how I feel, and that is, that I do not feel con- 

 tented without the bees, and to have you discontinue 

 Gleanings— not because it is not worthy of patron- 

 age, but from the fact that I intend to move from 

 this place again; and not having any bees, it would 

 be of little use for me to be having you changing my 

 address so much; but I do hate to have my name 

 erased from your subscription list; and when I get 



settled down again, or happen to get some bees, if 

 ever I do, you shall have my name there again. The 

 causes of my bees dying are (they were all in the cel- 

 lar, but it was a cold one), starvation, with plenty of 

 honey all around them, and from being confined too 

 long in that place, all dead. But a couple of lines 

 that I have partly made up, and I must close up. 



You may break, you may shatter the hive at will, 

 But the propoliti and wax will stick to it still. 



I add these, because I mean by it that all I have 

 got left is empty hives, daubed combs, etc. With 

 this I will now close, by saying, good-by, my dear old 

 friend, until we meet again. Much love to you and 

 your family, and, I almost forgot to say, to your em- 

 ployes, especially the girls there. There, I have al- 

 most 15t myself out; but, never mind; if I ever 

 meet any of them, we will make this all up. Well, 

 well; I keep right on writing, so I now shake hands 

 with you in my mind. Chas. W. White. 



Madison, Wis., April 17, 1883. 



Inasmuch as I have given so many encour- 

 aging reports in our juvenile paper, I have 

 thought best to put in one on the opposite 

 side, to let our young people know that 

 sometimes we do have up-hill work as well 

 as the other. Eriend W., I am very sorry 

 for your misfortune ; but for your encour- 

 agement I would say that some of our 

 largest honey-producers have, in their be- 

 ginning, made much such a report as yours. 

 Stick to the hives and "propolis." Get 

 some more bees going, put your trust inGod, 

 and all things will come out right. 



SOMETHING ABOUT SHORT -HAND. 



BY AN OLD gleanings HAND. 



|msl|WO months ago the editor of the Juvenile said 



-^1 he 



he would soon have a person at work here in 

 ' the factory who would write as fast as he usu- 

 ally talks, and thus save him a good deal of valuable 

 time and exhausting work. If any of the children 

 will try to write down what the preacher says, they 

 will see how utterly impossible this is, with common 

 letters; and hence some may have a curiosity to 

 know how it can be done at all, and to see how it 

 looks when it is done. Of course, we can not explain 

 it, except in tho most general terms. 



We here give you the Lord's Prayer, written in 

 " Phonography," called short-hand for short. 



Although ;the8e marks look, rather crooked, they 

 are 'a hundred times more regular than common 

 letters. The first little slanting mark you see is 

 shorter than the btter t, and yet it is the word our. 



