1883 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



415 



right straight from you in your far-off home. 

 I am sure we shall all be very glad to hear 

 from you again. I wonder if your people 

 have developed your honey resources as 

 well as we have here. Do you have bees 

 enough to gather the honey from those great 

 gum-trees ? and do you understand giving 

 them room in their hives as fast as they can 

 use it V 



IDA'S L.F:TTKR after sue FlilLL. 

 DOWN STAIUS. 



A NGVLL WAY OF KEEPING A SWAIiM OE BEES 

 EROM GOING OFF. 



] T is much harder for me to write this time, be- 

 cause a week ago I i'ell down cellar and sprain- 

 ed mj' arm very badly. I supprse ycu wonder 

 that I am writing, as it is my right band that is 

 sprained; but 1 wanted to teU you that I hi\ cd two 

 swarms about four days before my accident. 1 had 

 a very hard lime hiving them, for they were near 

 the top of a high tree, which I had to climb. 1 think 

 it was just two days after 1 was hurt that the bees 

 swarmed again. We were in quite a fix, as you may 

 suppose, for there is not one in the family who will 

 tnj to hive them but m3' brother Ilcrtie, papa, and 

 I. Bertie and papa were away, and my arm was 

 hurt so that I could not use it; eo, what do you 

 think Wilfred did? He poured a pailful of water 

 on them, so they could not tly away. Thej' stayed 

 there until pa came home in the evening. Pa took 

 the net that the girls use to catch insects in, and 

 held it under the branch where the bees were, and 

 shook the branch, and the bees fell into it; but pa 

 could not get the queen, so the bees clustered on the 

 branch again. Pa tried several times, but to no ef- 

 fect. He had to cut the limb off, which he was try- 

 ing to avoid. Pa got them at last. 1 hope the bees 

 will wait until my arm gets well before thty swarm 

 again. I must stop writing, for my hand begins to 

 ache. Ida Singi-eton, age 13. 



Brooklyn Villsiee, Ohio, July, 1883. 



I think you have written a very good let- 

 ter, Ida, and I admire the energy with which 

 you saved the swarm of bees, althougli 1 am 

 not sure I would advise pouring a whole 

 pailful of water on the little chaps. Did 

 ihey get dried off, so it did not hurt tliem 

 any V 



OUR GOOD FRlIillVD MRS. HARRISON. 



ALSO SOME FUNNY STORIES ABOUT HER PETS. 



tHILE I was at work in the apiary this morn- 

 ing, I was thinking, and kept thinking, of 

 the bee-children. I'm only a grown-up 

 child, and I like Sundaj-sehool and playthings, just 

 as well as you do. You think grown-up people can 

 do just as they want to do. Now, this is a mistaken 

 idea; we can't do any such a thing. The Sunday- 

 school superintendent says, " Sister Harrison, you' ve 

 got to teach that class," and I do it, when I would so 

 much rather be in a class, and have a teacher take 

 me over the same ground with Paul and Barnabas 

 in that first missionary journey. Did you ever think 

 of it, that people and children all over the world are 

 studying the same lesson, on the same Sunday, 

 since we have the "International Lessons"? Isn't 

 this grand? And if we all "apply our hearts unto 



wisdom," the world must become better for this 

 Bible-study. We must abhor the " accursed thing," 

 such as lying, stealing, and being cruel to auimals, 

 and to one another. I've read somewhere, that 

 when the apostle John was an old man he used to 

 keep repealing, " Little children, love one another." 



When I was at Lexington, at the convcDtlon, a 

 bee-keeper looliod out of the window and said that 

 he " saw two things that he never saw before — an 

 old woman in a swing, and a calf eating a newspa- 

 per." If my mother were living (but she isn't ; poor 

 soul, she has been dead a long time) she would have 

 said, " Lucinda, you are so childish." And so I am; 

 but I must tell you about my pets and playthings. 

 The grandest pet of all is a dear little girl. Oh! I've 

 told you about her before; but I mean to get a little 

 boy somewhere, and then I'll have a span. We have 

 a little white bantam hen. Dove is her name; she 

 is eleven years old, and, oh my! the way she lays, 

 cackles, and fights cats, when she has chickens, and 

 gets up on the hives and crows! Crows? yes, just 

 like a rooster. 



A maltose cat came to see us this spring, and 

 seemed to like us, and stayed. We call him Thomas, 

 and a " mighty fine cat is he." But, Thomas is cast 

 far in the shade by Fannie Sprague, who is a bab}- 

 horse, and rears up before, and antics up behind. 



These are all a " happy family;" but there is "en- 

 mity " between them and my special pets, the bees. 

 I don't believe that even Barnum could teach them 

 to live together in peace. He hasn't them in his 

 " happy family." If the bees get after Thomas, he 

 scampers off, with his tail looking like a rolling-pin; 

 and the antics that Dove cuts up, trying to scratch 

 otr the bees from her comb, is laughable to sec. But 

 if they should sting the velvety nose of the colt, I'm 

 afraid that I should have to call upon the rocks and 

 mountains to cover me from impending wrath. 



A TOY BEE-HIVE FOR THE LITTLE FOLKS. 



I've one of Mr. Jones's little hives that he imports 

 bees in. It has two little frames, about three inches 

 square. Cute, isn't it? I put a young queen in it, 

 and set it where the young bees could crawl off from 

 the sections into it. It is full of bees, and the queen 

 will be laying in a day or two. 1 want to be playing 

 with it all the time. Who among you will make a 

 little hive, just large enough to hang two sections 

 in, and raise queens in it, and tell us all about it in 

 the Juvenile? Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Peoria, 111., July, 1883. 



Mrs. IL, that is what I call a good juvenile 

 letter. You just tell your friends that I hope 

 you will be childish enough to Interest chil- 

 dren as long as you live. I am real glad to 

 hear that you are in the Sunday-school work; 

 and I wish you would tell that superintend- 

 ent that he did the best thing that could be 

 done, when he told you that you had got to 

 teach that Sunday-school class. I would 

 have given almost any thing to have been 

 right behind you, so I could listen, while 

 you knew nothing about it.— Now in regard 

 to a hive for children to play with : A good 

 many years ago neighbor JJlakeslee raised 

 queens in nucleus hives, made by setting 

 two sections of honey in a little box. As 

 tlie sections have no top-bars, so they can be 

 hung in the hive, I would suggest having 

 some little strips in the bottom of the hive, 

 just far enough apart to hold the sections up 

 from the bottom- board ; for you know we 



