lia THE apiaey; oe, 



may be suggestive to some of the rural clergy in this country, who 

 might almost as easily keep an apiary as they do a garden or an 

 orchard. 



A good French bishop, in paying his annual visit to his clergy, 

 was very much afflicted by the representations they made to him of their 

 extreme poverty, which indeed the appearance of their houses and 

 families corroborated. Deploring the sad state'of things which had 

 reduced tliem to such a condition, he arrived at the house of a 

 curate who, living amongst a poorer set of parishioners than any he 

 had yet visited, would, he feared, be in a still more woful plight 

 than the rest. Contrary, however, to his expectations, he found 

 the appearance of this remote parsonage to be superior to those he 

 had already visited. Everything about the house wore the aspect 

 of comfort and plenty. The good bishop was amazed. " How is 

 this, my friend," said he, "you are the first pastor I have met 

 with having a cheerful face and a plentiful board ! Have you any 

 income independent of your cure ? " " Yes, Sire," said the pastor, 

 " I have : my family would starve on the pittance I receive from 

 the poor people that I instruct. If you wiU walk into the garden, 

 I will show you the stock that yields me such excellent interest." 

 On going into the garden, he showed the bishop a long range of 

 bee-hives. " There," said he, " is the bank from which I draw an 

 annual dividend, and it is one that never stops payment." His 

 harvest of honey enabled him almost to dispense with the use of 

 sugar, leaving him a considerable quantity of it for disposal in the 

 ■ market ; of the coarser portions he made a tolerable substitute for 

 wine, and the sale of his wax nearly paid his shoemaker's bill. 

 Ever afterwards, when any of the clergy complained to the bishop 

 of poverty, he would say to them " Keep bees ! keep bees ! " 

 In this succinct advice, extending it to laity as well as clergy in 

 rural districts, we heartily join, believing that in this country a ten 

 times greater number of hives might be successfully kept than are 

 now established. In a very practical sense, the oft repeated lines 

 of Gray are strictly true : — 



" Full many a flower is bom to blnsli unseen, 

 And waste its fragrance on the desert air." 



enhanced, especially as to the dismay of the decorous English prelate in 

 hearing that his poor brother in the Church had turned "manufacturer;" but 

 then the vraisemblance of the story, as we have it, was destroyed. 



