1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



535 



himself, during hours of trial and tempta- 

 tionj " Now, what would friend Root do un- 

 der just such circumstances as these ? " It 

 took hold of me in a way I can hardly tell 

 you, because it made me feel how poorly I 

 was fitted to be held up in that way as a 

 guide for others. I do not want anybody to 

 follow me ; but I do want all to follow the 

 Savior, whom I love and have tried to follow 

 in my own stumbling way. 



We not only had peaches to eat at friend 

 Cork's, but we went right out among the 

 trees and picked them from the branches. I 

 can not really get over the memorv of friend 

 Cork's peach-orchard. The only thing about 

 it that made me feel bad was because I had 

 not one at home exactly like it. Although 

 we have had heavy frosts in Ohio, every 

 thing was as bright and green and growing 

 at friend C.'s, on the border of Lake Onta- 

 rio, as it is here in August. A very nice 

 apiary extended along the side of the yard, 

 and friend C. said the bees had been coming 

 in heavily laden the day before. He had 

 followed them to an oak grove a mile or 

 more away, but did not find what they were 

 working on. The word " oak grove " waked 

 me up ; and early next morning, finding the 

 bees were doing a land-otfice business, we 

 followed them. We got into the grove, but 

 — not a bee. Where could they be ? They 

 surely seemed to dodge into this wood. We 

 walked in it, but no bees. Finally friend C. 

 declared he heard them humming. If on 

 one tree, why not on the others ? Finally I 

 heard them too, and then we discovered that 

 they were on a kind of oak that had rough, 

 dark, shaggy bark, with smooth shining 

 leaves. The leaf had sharp points, or angles, 

 whereas the white-oak has rounded points 

 and angles, as you may know. Well, what 

 were bees doing on these black-oaks, or yel- 

 low-oaks, whatever they were V If we un- 

 dertook to climb the trees, we should tear 

 our Sunday " trowsers " — at least, I should 

 tear mine ; and as friend C. is superintend- 

 ent of the schools at Niagara, he was oblig- 

 ed to wear tolerably soft clothes too, and so 

 we stared at the tree-tops, and wished for a 

 ladder, with little hope of being able to get 

 one by the time the train came. Did you 

 ever! Just then a man drove up with a 

 long ladder on his wagon, stopped his team, 

 and he and his boy carried it over to us, and 

 friend C. was soon throwing down branches 

 of oak with honey-dew blotched over the 

 leaves. Why are people so accommodating 

 in Canada ? and how did this honey-dew get 

 on those leaves without there being any on 

 the leaves of the white-oak — that of which 

 the forest was principally comprised V Friend 

 C. solved the conundrum about the man and 

 the ladder, but none of us could do so in re- 

 gard to the honey, for he could not find a 

 single aphis in the tree -tops; nevertheless 

 there might have been some away up high. 

 I do not think the bees got any honey from 

 the rudimentary buds, as has been suggest- 

 ed. I wish friend C. would tell us what the 

 quality of it was. 



Two hours later, and I stepped on the 

 train to take a closer look at the falls of Ni- 

 agara. How I did want a bee-friend who 

 knew all about it, or some other friend, to 



guide me ! I got off at the railroad suspen- 

 sion-bridge, and thought I would take the 

 path and go under the cliffs along down 

 by the river. I did so ; and when I found 

 the perpendicular rocks towering away up 

 above my head, I discovered that I could 

 neither climb up nor get any further, and so 

 I wasted another half-hour in getting back 

 again. I was pretty well tired by travel 

 wiien I got back, and I was something like 

 the boy whom the policeman found. He 

 said he wanted his mother; and added, by 

 way of explanation, that he told her when 

 they went to the city that he knew she would 

 lose him. Well, I found myself, and plenty 

 of water too. You see, I was just going 

 right up close to the falls, where I could 

 look up and see the water come down. But 

 1 found two obstacles in the way. One was, 

 I should be as wet as a drowned rat, before 

 I even got there; and the next was, there 

 was such a fog that I could not see any thing 

 besides. Of course, I could get oil-cloth fix- 

 ings to go out under there with ; but while 

 a body could not see, what was the use in 

 going out there in the wet? On Goat 

 Island there was not so much fog, and I had 

 a better view. I soon took back all my first 

 feelings about being disappointed in Niaga- 

 ra. I turned to somebody near with the re- 

 marK, " Why, do you mean to say, my friend, 

 that this keeps doing so always V " 



It did not " let up " any while I was there, 

 and I presume likely it has not yet. For a 

 long time after, I could hear the roar and 

 rush of the mighty waters, whenever I let 

 my mind run back to what I saw during my 

 couple of hours' stay. A glass of soda costs 

 only 25 cts. on Goat island, and a piece of pie 

 and a sandwich makes it about 50 cts. They 

 were very good, however, and my climbing 

 up and down among the rocks',"' and over the 

 rapids, gave me a keen sense of the " beau- 

 ties " of such things, as well as a taste for 

 the romantic. 



In Buffiilo, a few hours later, I enjoyed 

 hugely a visit through the great factory of 

 Sidney Shepard & Co. On another page I 

 give you a picture of some of the tinware I 

 found there that I thought would be nice to 

 hold honey. My sleeping-car that was to 

 take me home would not be ready until half- 

 past nine in the evening. It was Friday 

 night, and I had been away from home the 

 better part of a week ; had missed the Thurs- 

 day-evening prayer-meeting, and to-night 

 was our regular teachers' meeting. I began 

 to be hungry for the companionship of Chris- 

 tian people, and the atmosphere of the pray- 

 er-room. Strangely enough, while these 

 thoughts were in my mind I met a promi- 

 nent bee-friend and his wife. The evening 

 was pleasantly passed with them; and be- 

 fore I started for the train they had told me 

 about a young minister who was laboring 

 most zealously in their own neigborhood at 

 home, and who had many times invited 

 them to become one of their little band of 

 Christ's followers. You may be sure that I 

 seconded his appeal to them with all my en- 

 ergy ; and when I shall hear from them, that 

 they two are " on the Lord's side," it will be 

 one of the pleasantest remembrances of my 

 trip to Canada. 



