56 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



Wilson, a blessed old Scotch saint, whose presence in the 

 home I feel to be much like the presence of the ark in the 

 house of Obed-Edom, when "it was told king^ David, 

 saying. The Lord hath blessed the house of Obed-Edom, 

 and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the ark of 

 God." There is with us temporarily a niece who is teach- 

 ing- school, and that completes the household. 



ASSISTANT BEE-KEEPER. 



So for a number of years Miss Emma M. Wilson has 

 given me the only assistance I have had in the apiary. 

 The hired man does some such work as carrying out and 

 hauling bees, putting together hives, etc., unloading honey 

 brought from the out-apiary, taking sections out of supers, 

 etc. This hired man, whose present name is Philo Wood- 

 ruff, is in the joint employ of myself and my good 

 brother-in-law, Ghordis Stull. Ghordis has the place 

 pretty -p\\ filled with raspberries and strawberries, and he 

 is 'way up in such matters. Previous to his occupancy 

 of the place, it was chiefly in grass, for I could give no 

 attention to cultivated crops. The only thing I pretend 

 to oversee of the farm work is the cultivation of the 

 rose-beds. I could hardly live without roses, and my 

 wife is an expert in chrysanthemums. With the fruit 

 crop I have nothing whatever to do except with the fin- 

 ished product, and only so much of that as we can fin- 

 ish in the house — by no means a small quantity. 



Miss Wilson was a school-teacher with health run 

 down, and twenty years ago she stopped a year for the 

 out-door life of bee-keeping. She is still stopping. Al- 

 though neverrugged in health, I think she has never missed 

 a day's work in the apiary during all the twenty years, 

 when there was work to be done. Small of stature and 

 frail of build, she yet has a remarkable capacity for work, 

 perhaps partly owing to the fact that she is full-blood 

 Scotch, and she will go through more colonies in a day 



