FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 313 



tion. If I were running for extracted honey I would undoubt- 

 edly produce more honey than by running for <k)mb honey. 

 If more honey is produced, more of it will be consumed, and I 

 believe increased consumption of honey would be a fine thing 

 for the health of the nation. So if I were broad-minded 

 enough, very likely I would start in again as an extracted- 

 honey man. 



Indeed, it is true that in 1913 I returned to the extractor 

 sufficiently to extract several hundred pounds, and it is not 

 impossible that I may do still more in that line. 

 "OFFICE." 



Possibly some one of my readers might desire a picture of 

 the office in which I do my work. That would take a number 

 of pictures. According to circumstances, my office may be on 

 the back porch seen in Fig. 1, or it may be in any one of nine 

 different rooms inside. A look at the furnishings in Tig. Ill 

 wiU show that it is no serious undertaking to move my "office" 

 whenever desired. I never like to be far from the rest of the 

 family, and when at work I enjoy the sound of their voices, 

 even though I may pay no attention to what they are saying. 

 They are generally quite considerate in refraining from inter- 

 rupting my work by remarks directed personally to me, but 

 sometimes they forget. 



I count myself singularly blessed in having a home where 

 all the members of the family are so united in their tastes and 

 enjoyments. One of our chief earthly pleasures is the love of 

 flowers. At our quiet country home we have room unlimited 

 for producing summer roses by the bushel, and the bay window 

 of the sitting-room brightens the days of winter with its bright 

 colors and luxuriant green. If you were here, I am sure you 

 would enjoy a sight of that window, and then I would take 

 pride in displaying to you my set of china honey-dishes shown 

 in the last picture in the book. They were painted by my sister, 

 each dish showing a separate honey plant, one-half the dish 

 being covered by a honeycomb. 



I desire to record my deep gratitude to a loving Heavenly 

 Father for giving me so busy and happy a life; and for you, 

 dear reader, I can hardly express a better wish than that your 

 life may be as happy, if not as busy, as mine. 



