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JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



Ava. 



A LETTER FROM A FIVE-TEAR-OLD. 



My pa has a lot of bees, some Italians. I go to 

 Sunday-school, g-et a paper, and a card with "Gold- 

 en Text." This is not much of a letter. May be I 

 will do better next time. I read and spell in live let- 

 ters. I have a sister three years old next August. 

 I can't write alone, so pa holds my hand. 



Albion, N. Y. Elvira L. Buuke, age 5. 



HEMP AS A BEE-PLANT. 



My pa has 65 swarms of bees. He plants hemp In 

 his bee-yard; they make a shade-tree, and the bees 

 work on the ones that flower; and the kind that don't 

 flower, bears seed. We keep birds too, and I attend 

 to them. Sarah A, Christian, age 11. 



Lorraine, Ont., Canada. 



Thank you, Sarah. I knew that hemp at 

 times bore large quantities of pollen, but I 

 did not know that it bore honey. So there 

 are two kinds of plants, are there — one that 

 bears blossoms, and one that does not ? You 

 see, you knew something that I did not. I 

 expect to learn a great many things from 

 these little friends of mine, if God spares 

 me many years to read over their little let- 

 ters as they come in day by day. 



TEN NIGHTS IN A BAR-ROOM, AND THE FRUIT IT IS 

 BEARING. 



I received Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, and certain- 

 ly owe you a debt of thanks for It. Papa has 53 

 hives; one died of suffocation. We have one licens- 

 ed hotel in Dry Run, and a man is trying to get an- 

 other. The temperance people are trying to stop 

 both, and it makes a great deal of excitement. I 

 think if everybody would read the book you sent 

 me they would want to shut all bar-rooms. 



Dry Run, Pa. Clara B. Alexander. 



I am very glad to know, Clara, that there 

 is excitement in your town on this matter of 

 saloons or no saloons. There is a great deal 

 of excitement just now in our town, and, I 

 am inclined to think, most of the towns in 

 our country. Excitement is a good thing 

 when a great evil is to be put down. And 

 may God grant that peace may never come 

 till this matter is settled "on the Lord's 

 side." 



the sun-glass trouble. 

 My brother, J. Harry Willson, received his sun- 

 glasses all right, and I am ashamed to tell you that 

 he will light his pipe with them. 



Mrs. St. Julian T. Moore. 

 Monroe, La., July 30, 1883. 



My good friend, I am sorry to know that 

 your brother is a tobacco-user ; and I hope 

 that, when he sees his name here in print, 

 right before all these children, he will decide 

 to use his sun-glass for some better purpose. 

 ]}y the way, a bright thought strikes me. If 

 he should give up tobacco, and we should 

 give him a smoker, he might use the glass 

 to light his smoker with. Just open the 

 door a little, and let the focus strike on the 

 wood for an instant, working the bellows at 

 the same time, and I am inclined to think 

 the smoker would light quicker than it could 

 be lighted with a match. Now you see the 

 next thing to do will be to have a sun-glass 

 attached to every smoker, so bee-keepers 

 can light up quickly during windy days, and 

 without any necessity for having any match- 

 es around, either. 



THE TROITBLE THET HAD AT SALLTE'S HOUSE IN 

 MAKING THE SWARM CLUSTER. 



My brother bought a stand of bees in the winter of 

 1880. The next spring they swarmed twice. The 

 first time they swarmed my mother went out and 

 beat on a pan. All the bees stung her on the head, 

 and she had the headache all the afternoon. The 

 next time they swarmed, my aunt went out. The 

 bees stung her, and she threw the pan away, and we 

 could not find it for several days. I go to school, 

 and study four branches. I got a prize for not 

 whispering for a month. 



Pin Oak, lU. Sallie Nichols, age 13. 



I am real glad to hear, Sallie, that you got 

 along a whole month without whispering at 

 school. I am aware that it is a pretty hard 

 matter for a girl 13 years old to do ; but any 

 girl or boy can do it if he sets down reso- 

 lutely that he will do it. Our tongues are to 

 be ruled by us, and woe betide the girl or 

 boy who lets the tongue get unruly. 



ALL ABOUT HUMMING-BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



Will the Juvenile let a little Texas girl 9 years 

 old speak her piece ? My pa keeps bees; he got lots 

 of honey last year, but little this year. His bees are 

 nearly all Cyprians. Ma says she would rather 

 work with the Cyprians than Italians, for she gets 

 but few stings from the Cyps; but the Italians by 

 some means get mad, and go to fighting. 



We were playing in the orchard the other day, 

 and brother found a little humming-bird's nest. It 

 was about as big as a hen's egg cut in two. It had 

 two little birds in it. The old bird sucks the hon- 

 ey from the flowers like a bee, and she puts her bill 

 in the little birds' mouth and throws up the honey 

 into It like a pigeon. Do you not think they ought 

 to be called honey-birds? The little birds have 

 flown off, and we have the nest in the house for a 

 show. It is made of cotton from the oottonwood, 

 glued together, and nice little bits of bark glued on 

 the outside, so it looks like a mossy knot on a limb. 



It has not rained here since June 13th. 



Dresden, Tex., Aug. 6, 1883. May Carroll. 



CLINT CAPF.N and HIS FATHER. 



My pa has 21 swarms of bees. Some are in nail- 

 kegs, some in soap-boxes, and some in salt-barrels. 

 When a swarm comes off, pa grabs the first thing he 

 gets hold of, and hives them; but he thinks of send- 

 ing for some of your hives next winter. John Still- 

 well puts up bee-boxes in the woods, and almost 

 always gets bees into them. But the bees don't go 

 in my pa's boxes; so he took a ladder and climbed 

 up to Mr. Stillwell's, and smelled of them to find 

 out what he put on them. Pa came home walking 

 kind o' one-sided; and when ma asked him what he 

 found out, he said he "found out" better than to 

 climb forty feet on a rotten ladder. 



Farm Ridge, 111. Clint Capen, age 10. 



Well, now, Clint, aren't you a little rough 

 on your paternal relative? Perhaps your 

 father has a great deal to do, and does not 

 pay much attention to bee-keeping, even if 

 he has got 21 swarms. Can't you get your 

 friend John Stillwell to write us a letter and 

 tell us about his success with decoy hivesV 

 Your pa thought he would get at the secret 

 by smelling of the hives, did he? Well, I 

 am sorry he did not tell us whether he smell- 

 ed any thing, as well as what he " found 

 out "in regard to the matter. I trust he 

 was not hurt much in his fall, was he, Clint? 



