28 THE BLESSED BEES. 



where, since last winter's school closed, they had 

 cooked and scrubbed, made butter and cheese, 

 washed and ironed, and with skillful fingers had cut 

 and made the family garments. To these boys and 

 girls the four months' school was a boon highly 

 prized. They were zealous and quick-witted pupils. 

 It was a pleasure to see the clearness with which they 

 would analyze a problem in Algebra. Our reading 

 books were of the good old kind, made up of selec- 

 tions from English classics. How often, as we read 

 the stirring passages, did the cheek of boy or girl 

 flush with sympathy, the eye sparkle with pleasure, 

 and the lines around the mouth assume a firmer tense- 

 ness. As the weeks wore on, I was glad to believe that 

 when the school was done, and the boys and girls 

 were again at work on the farms, and in their humble 

 kitchens, something of earnestness, of beauty, and of 

 aspiration, caught from their term of study, would 

 dignify their lives. 



When the school was once in good running order 

 I had plenty of time to devote to my books on bees. 

 They had for me a strong fascination. I read them 

 until late at night, and was busy with them again 

 in the early morning. I began with the first number 

 of the magazine, of which I had the back volumes, 

 and read them every word, advertisements and all. 

 No question as to bee management, sent up by some 

 new beginner, escaped me. No article, by any of 



