1883 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



351 



I like honey, and molasses too. One day I found 

 a screech owl in a hollow tree. My father has no 

 bees, but grandpa has. John E. Alvis, age 13. 



Mcntrosc, Ta., March 30, 18S3. 



I have read the letters la the Juvenile, and like 

 them. My uncle takes Gleanings. He keeps bees, 

 lie has one colony upstairs. I saw the queen last 

 summer, on the comb. [Pearl Lawson. 



Staunton, Ind. 



UPW.VRD VENTILATION. 



Bees have wiotered well so far. Father left the 

 top story on one hive, and thinks it Is in the best 

 condition of any. He thinks top ventilation is quite 

 important for successful wintering. 



Miles G. Wyth. 



Townsend, Mass., March 13, 1883. 



A six-year-old friend tells us avhat happened 



AVnEN HE WASA " LITTLE BOY." 



MY PAPA HAS 15 SWARMS OF BEES. WHEN 

 I WAS A LITTLE BOY I WENT OUT WITH A 

 STICK TO PLAY WITH THE BEES, AND THEY 

 DID PLAY WITH ME UNTIL I MADE A BIG 

 NOISE, WHICH BROt'GHT MY PAPA IN A 

 HURRY. THE NEXT DAY I COULD NOT SEE 

 OUT OF ONE BYE, AND THE MINISTER WAS 

 HERE, AND HE LAUGHED. WELL, I SHOULD 

 LIKE JACK THE GIANT-KILLER. 



FORREST L. COLBY, AGE 6. 



ENFIELD CENTRE, N. II., MARCH 13, 1883. 



Well, I don't wonder very much that the 

 minister laughed, Forrest, for I think I 

 should have laughed too, especially if it all 

 happened when you were only a little boy. 



now TO CURE LEFT-HANDEDNESS ; BY AN OLD JU 

 VENILE. 



I want to tell "'Left-handed Laura" and other ju- 

 veniles how my teacher broke me of writing left- 

 handed. He set mo a copy. I went to my desk (just 

 promoted to one), feeling very important. I took 

 my pen in my left hand, of course, as I was left- 

 handed, and I was trying my best to make straight 

 marks, when the teacher's list came violently in con- 

 tact with the right side of my head, and I lay sprawl- 

 ing in the aisle. As soon as I could, I got on my 

 feet, when the teacher (?) opened his mouth, and 

 spoke thus: "Young man, never let me see a pen 

 in your left hand again." And I didn't. Children, 

 how do you like that kind of teaching? *I am a little 

 boy of 5, with a at the right-hand side of it. Mr. 

 Root, is there any Ihing about bees in this? If there 

 is, I want a book. C. E. McRay. 



Canon City, Colorado. 



Friend M., we can all of us thank God 

 that such ways of guiding the infant mind 

 are now happily, at least for tlie most part, 

 passed away, ileason, kindness, and love, 

 are lirst tried, and severity, if ever needed at 

 all, only as a last resort. What would be 

 done with a teacher now days, were he to 

 attempt to cure urchins or leffc-handedness 

 after that fashion? 



SO.ME INDIAN STORIF.S. 



1 have been very much interested In hearing my 

 parents tell about the Indians that inhabited this St. 

 Croix Valley about 30 j'ears ago, and thought some 

 of the JuvKNiLE readers also would like to hear 

 something ab..ut them. Before the St. Croix Valley 

 became a wheat - growing country, the steamboat 

 used to bring loads of flour from St. Louis. One 



time it brought up a load of lime, and a party of 

 Chippewas thought it was flour, took one barrel, 

 and carried it twelve miles into the woods, and when 

 they got to their camp and opened the barrel they 

 were very much disappointed. At another time 

 they stole butter off the steamboat, and ate nothing 

 but butter while it lasted, and it made them all sick, 

 so none of that tribe will eat butter. There is an 

 old squaw living near this village, called Mindy, and 

 she (like all the other squaws) is a very neat sewer. 

 Once a tribe of Sioux came here and got into a fight 

 with the Chippewas, and Mindy got stabbed, and 

 thought she was going to die, and so she sent her 

 boy with a very nice patchwork quilt to my sister. 

 She soon recovered, and sent her b?y after it. 

 St. Croix Falls, Wis.. Jan. 8, 1883. Eva Amerv. 



THE TYRRELL BOYS AND THEIR BEE-KEEPING. 



I received your Gleanings, of which my grandpa 

 made my brother and I a present. We had 10 colo- 

 nics of bees last winter, and increased to 31. We 

 lost one. My brother and I kept up with them as 

 far as the marsh. AVe were barefoot, and could run 

 fast. We saw which way they went into the woods, 

 but Ave couldn't find them alter. We sold one to Mr. 

 Shum, and one was robbed by the bees. I made 

 hives to raise queens this summer. 



W. E. Tyrrell, age 11. 



THE SWARM IN THE HEDGE. 



My brother said that we kept bees, so I will tell 

 you about a swarm of bees. A farmer came and 

 told pa that there was a swarm of bees in a hedge 

 fence on his farm, and that if he came out and took 

 them away he could have them; but pa was busy 

 for a week, and could not go and get them. The bees 

 had built combs the size of a half-bushel in among 

 the limbs, and there wasn't a bit of shelter over 

 them. Pa got the bees, but no honey, for some one 

 had been there the night before, and had built a fire 

 of green corn-stalks, and had smoked the bees up on 

 the upper limbs, and then took the honey. They 

 were the gray bees. They are in a hive in our apiary. 

 They have a good supply of honey for winter. 



La Porte, Ind. Ch.arles R. Tyrrell. 



SAMMIE'S QUESTIONS, ETC. 



Mother takes your journal, and I have been read- 

 ing some of the letters from your little friends. I 

 should like to be one of your friends too. My pa 

 had several stands of bees, but the moths killed 

 them. My brother has four bee-trees in the woods, 

 and we should like to know the best way to get 

 them out, and what kind of a hive to put them in. 

 Mr. Root, can you tell me how the bees make their 

 wax? One of my neighbors has a stand with wire 

 cloth ove^ one side, so that you can look at the bees 

 at work. When they come in with honey they back 

 into their cells. What makes them do that way? 



Penn, Fla. Sammie R. Bowen, age 13. 



I shall be glad indeed, Sammie, to take 

 you into the circle of little friends, for there 

 never can be too many of us while we are 

 seeking to tread in wisdom's ways. Now I 

 wonder if some of the other little friends 

 cotild not answer some of the questions you 

 ask. Is it probable that the moths really 

 killed the bees? What shall her brother do 

 with his four bee-trees, and what kind of a 

 hive shall he put the bees into? How do the 

 bees make wax, and what do they back into 

 their cells for? Who can give us some light 

 on all these points? 



