1878. 



GLEAI^INGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



25 



" Very good ; after we know them a little 

 better, I think we shall be able to under- 

 stand almost all they say, or at least all they 

 wish to say. Now there is something funny 

 about bees' talking, for they do it with their 

 wings, and not Avitli their mouths. 



" I think each one of you children may 

 choose which hive he will have, and tlien we 

 can see who will get most honey from his or 

 her hive. We have a little blue eyed girl at 

 our home, and she has a hive that contains 

 the prettiest queen, the prettiest and gent- 

 lest bees, and they have made the nicest lit- 

 tle cakes of honey, of any hive in our whole 

 apiary, and there are nearly a hundred in all. 

 If you will look at our apiary on the back 

 cover of this book, you will see her hive right 

 in front of the door of the honey house. She 

 has a little broom, and sweeps the sawdust 

 up around the hives, and stamps it down 

 with her little foot, and she isn't afraid of 

 the bees, one particle. She has never been 

 stung at all, while at work among them. If 

 you will turn over to the picture of the House 

 Apiary, you will see where she and her sister 

 Maud, have their play house. It is up stairs 

 where the plants stand out by the window. 

 You can see them both, standing on the 

 steps, but the man who made the pictm'e, 

 did not try very hard, I guess, when he made 

 their faces, for it does not look very much 

 like them. They have never liad any trouble 

 with the bees in their play room, except one 

 day when they had some very nice water- 

 melon for tea, and the bees came to tea too, 

 and liked the water-melon so well, that they 

 went home and told the rest of the bees 

 (don't you see bees can talk V) in the hive, 

 about it, and so many of them came that the 

 children came and asked me what they 

 should do. You can see me in my camp 

 chair down by the door of the house. You 

 see I had a nice young queen that I wanted 

 to have lay eggs, because I knew after she 

 had commenced laying eggs, we should soon 

 have a nice lot of young bees in the hive. 

 Well, it was rather dark in the house where 

 their hive was, so I took the comb with the 

 bees on it, carried it out doors and sat down 

 to look for the tiny white eggs. 



" After the bees get acquainted with you, 

 they will not scold and tell you to go away, 

 but will light right on your hand or face, and 

 sometimes they light right on my nose. I 

 suppose it is becaiise my nose is rather large, 

 but it does not make me feel bad at all, if it 

 is large, for I know that God made it so. 

 When we come to die, I expect he will ask 

 all about our lives, whether we have been 



good or bad, and whether we have talked 

 bad and told lies, or stolen things, but I do 

 not believe he will ever say one word about 

 our noses. 



'' I almost forgot to tell you, tliat our ' Blue 

 Eyes ' — her name is Constance, and we call 

 her ' Conny ' for short,— always comes up to 

 the shop to tell me when the bees are swarm- 

 ing. Some days when I am writing with my 

 type writer, just as I am now, all at once 

 somebody will say, ' Papa ! bees is swam'in',' 

 and I tell you I 'hustle,' for I do not want 

 ray nice queens to go off and get lost. When 

 I get home, I usually find that my wife has 

 hunted out the queen, and has got her in a 

 cage. We tie the cage on the rake, with a 

 green bush, and pretty soon the bees all clus- 

 ter all round her. One Sunday I had to go 

 off to teach Sabbath school, and I Avas afraid 

 some of the bees would swarm, so I told 

 Ernest (he is our boy, 1-1 years old), that I 

 would give him a dollar for every swarm he 

 would hive while I was gone. When I got 

 home I found a ' great big swarm ' had come 

 out of Connie's hive, and he had hived it all 

 just as nice as I could have done. 



" Do you go to Sim day school ?" 



" I am too little, and it is too far." 



" Do father and mother go V" 



" Ihey go to meeting." 



" Does brother go V" 



" I guess he don't think very much about 

 it." 



"Do any bad boys live around here V" 



" O yes there is some that is ' awful ' bad. 

 They shoot guns on Sunday, and sometimes 

 they steal our bee-hives in the night ?'' 



" We would be really glad to have these 

 boys become good and stop doing these 

 wicked things, would we not ?" 



"But they won't never go to Sunday 

 school.'' 



" I know they are not very apt to go, but 

 sometimes very wicked boys feel badly and 

 are sorry, and if somebody would talk with 

 them, and help them a little, sometimes they 

 will make really good men. Perhaps nobody 

 has been kind to them, and sometimes they 

 have no kind father and mother to take care 

 of them, as you and I have. 



" Now I thinic it is just as nice to have a 

 good Sabbath school, as it is to have a nice 

 apiary, and I am not sure but tliat one helps 

 the other. You go to school do you not ?" 



"Yes, and we have just the nicest 

 school ma'am." 



" Well that is very fortunate, for I am sure 

 she will be glad to help you start a Sabbath 

 school. You can talk to her about it, and 



