1883 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



573 



your hives are properly looked after and 

 cared for, thete will never be any queenless 

 stocks. Your little story is a pretty fair 

 type of the way bee-keepers often manage. 



ERNEST'S STORY ABOUT THE EDUCATED CAT. 



I thought I would write you a letter about bees. 

 I am sorry to say thai the honey crop was not large 

 this year. The hot dry winds we had in June cook- 

 ed the blossoms. 



My father has about 130 stands of bees. He had 7 

 stands melt down this season. He gut only 3600 lbs. 

 of honey. 



My mother has a cat that will drink milk with his 

 paw. When we put milk in a little cup he will drink 

 with his nose until he gets it drank down so low that 

 he can not reach it with his nose, then he will put his 

 paw in and get it covered with milk, and then he 

 licks it off from his paw. Ernest Hilton, age 10. 



Los Alamos, Cal., Aug. 23, 1883. 



Thank you, Ernest. I would go several 

 miles to see that cat lift up milk with his 

 paw. Your story is well worth a book. I 

 like to know of tlipse queer tricks of domes- 

 tic animals, on several accounts. One is, 

 that it seems to give us a better understand- 

 ing and comprehension of them. We know 

 them better, you see. As civilization pro- 

 gresses, we steadily gain in our knowledge, 

 not only in regard to bees and their habits, 

 but also of all animated nature round about. 

 There is now in our land an organized so- 

 ciety " for the prevention of cruelty to an- 

 imals." They have such a society in San 

 Diego, Cal., and my brother is president of 

 it; and every few days he writes to me 

 something about what they are doing for 

 the sake of the poor dumb brutes, and es- 

 pecially about the efforts they are making 

 to render their lives happy. And is it not a 

 grand and glorious work, to study the ways 

 and means of adding to the comforts and 

 happiness of these poor mute friends of 

 ours y When I thiiik of it, it makes me like 

 cats and dogs and horses and cattle and 

 chickens and bees. Yes, and while I think 

 of it, it makes me like little babies too. Do 

 you not believe that ? And the great and 

 final end of it is, that it gives me a greater 

 and wider and grander love for God, who, in 

 his infinite mercy and goodness, made us all. 



BIBLE VERSES, ETC. 



As you are such a friend to children, 1 should like 

 to be among them. Father keeps bees, and has two 

 bee-yards — one at Pendleton, and one at home. 

 Oae yard has about 170 hives, and the other has 80. 

 In answer to Jesse Gulley's question, " What is the 

 least verse in the New Testament, and how many 

 words does It contain?" 1 answer, "Jesus wept," 

 John 11 : 35. I also ask, " How mauy times does and 

 occur in the Bible?" Martha Moffatt, age 13. 



Riceville, Ont., Can., Aug. 37, 188:3. 



Friend Martha, it is an excellent idea to 

 become conversant with the Bible. But I 

 do not believe I would take very much time 

 in trying to find which is the least verse in 

 the Bible, or to see how many " ands " three 

 are. The Bible was written for us, to guard 

 us against evil and sin, and to tell us of God, 

 and to let us know what he would have us 

 do. Some time ago I found a friend in jail, 

 and I earnestly recommended him to study 



the Bible. One day I was very much en- 

 couraged to hear him say he had read the 

 Bible more since he had been in jail than in 

 all his life before ; but on questioning him 

 a little further he said he read in some paper 

 of a prize to any one who would find some 

 little thing in the Bible, I have now forgotten 

 what, and he had been reading this book day 

 after day for nearly two weeks, hoping to 

 get this prize. So far as I could learn, his 

 Bible-reading had not made him a bit better; 

 in fact, it made him seem to slide over every 

 passage that ought to have sunk deep into 

 his heart, and shown him what a sinner he 

 was in the sight of God. Now. reading the 

 Bible, of itself, does not necessarily make 

 anybody better. I am not sure but that it 

 may make them worse, under some circum- 

 stances. It is the neardiing of the Scriptures 

 with an earnest desire to make our hearts 

 clean in the sight of God, that we want to 

 do. Will our little friends ti'y to remember 

 this when they search the Scriptures? 



LETTING BEES CRAWL INTO THE EAR — A CAUTION. 



My papa brought 15 colonies of bees from Mary- 

 land to this place abovit the first of May. They 

 came to Biairsville, about a mile from here, and 

 they had been handled so roughly on the cars that 

 bees were flying from nearly every hive. Papa took 

 them outside of the depot, and tore off the wire 

 cloth from the entrances, and gave them a good fly, 

 as it was the only way to save them. A great many 

 people were stung in passing the hives. The next 

 morning, papa nailed up the hives again and brought 

 them over here. So many bees fliw away that they 

 were nearly all very weak, and did not di well 

 this year. We shall have only about 200 lbs. of comb 

 honey. We increased to 35 colonies. Our bees did 

 not swarm until the basswood bloomed, and then 

 just as they got to work nicely in the sections they 

 swarffied, and then all work ceased in the bo.xes. 



I must tell you a strange story about my little 

 brother, 5 yc ars old. He was standing near the bees, 

 when one stung him on the cheek, near his ear, and 

 the bee, in twisting around to get the sting out, 

 saw the hole in the ear, and crawled in. Papa pulled 

 it out. Now, there was nothing strange about that ; 

 but what follows is what we think so curious. In 

 less than a week he was playing near them again, 

 whea another bee stung him near the same place, 

 and then popped into the same ear. My brother is 

 so much afraid of bees now that he will not go near 

 them; and if he hears a bee buzzing, he claps both 

 hands on his ears and runs away. 



Cora Ma.jor, age 10. 



Cokeville, Pa., Aug. 25, 1883. 



Friend Cora, I know what it is to have a 

 bee crawl into my ear. I wrote about it to 

 the bee-folks a few years ago ; and I told 

 you that, when a bee comes buzzing about 

 my ear very close nowadays, I am a good 

 deal like your little brother five years old. I 

 think bees are more apt to crawl into cavities 

 in one's clothing, or get into one's ear, when 

 the weather is rather cool. When a bee is 

 partially chilled, he seems to be apt to crawl 

 into places that seem to be quite warm ; 

 and the human ear is in some respects like 

 the cell in a honey-comb, only it is much 

 warmer. When a bee gets into your ear, 

 you had better poke him out about as lively 

 as you can. 



