We and the World, Part I

adventurous col

Bry

laws our hear

y shall l

year to c

rom to-day."

an Apiary is, I

backs, diamond-shaped seats, and chintz cushions with frills. It was the summer following that in which Jem and I had tried to see how badly we

an Apiary is,

hat,

-P-I-

hould be familiar with the name, sir, from my bee-book, but I never calls my own stock anything b

e to the B's yet," said I, allu

ing 'em, sir?" said Isaac, allu

ve them bound, I be

ng about the weekly numbers of the Penny Cyclop?dia, which had not as yet reached the letter B, but in which I had found an article on Master Isaac's

your bees away f

e moors now, s

Egyptians, and like the French, and the Piedm

nal don't go nigh-han

ght up at that end of the Nile the flowers come out earliest, and the bees get all the good out of them there, and then the boats are moved lower down to where the same kind of flowers are only just beginning to

hey did start, I'll warrant," said Master Isaac enthusiasticall

Isaac! About lots of thin

oreign parts is a fine thing, and many's the time I've wished fo

river Nile that Moses was put

light as it should be, they were grand! There was one they called the Wailing Place of the Jews, with every stone standing out as fair as the flags on this floor. John Binder, the mason, was at my elbow when that came on, and he clapped his hands, and says he, 'Well, yon beats all!' But the one for my choice, sir, was the Garden of Gethsemane by moonlight. I'd only gone to the penny places, for I'm a good size and can look over most folks' heads, but I thought I must see that a bit nearer, cost what it might. So I found a shilling, and I says to the young fellow at the door (it was the pupil-teacher), 'I must go a bit

hat number! The Mono-there's a picture of him, just like a man with a tail and horrid feet, who used to sit with the negro women when they were at work, and play with bits of paper; and a Quata, who used to be sent to the tavern for wine, and when the children pelted him he put down the wine and threw stones at them. And there are pictures in all the numbe

hen he said, "But I'll say this, Master Jack, next to going to such places the reading about 'em must come. A pen

uch better than if he had had to read to himself-he said he could understand reading better when he heard it than when he saw it. For

of my chair, I read aloud to the attentive bee-master-"'Goldsmith describes from his own observation a kind of floating a

culated Master Isaac, interrupting his pi

of four thousand hives

resigned sigh. "Go on,

prietor a considerable income. Why, he adds, a method similar to this has never been adopted in England, where we have more gentle rivers and more flowery banks

s interesting to me; but a bargeful of bees seemed something quite out of the common. I thought I should rather like to float down a gentle

one beehive that brought in a considerable income. Honey must have been very dear in

clop?dia, for I was thinking of something e

h your bees on the moors.

I get back from morning church, and I come home in the dark, or by moonlight. My

d take me the ne

nd too glad sir, if y

orses, hot water, bedtime, candles, the post, the wash-day, and an extra blanket, from being the ministers of one's comfort, become the stern arbiters of one's fate. Spring cleaning-which is something like what it would be to build, paint, and furnish a house, and to "do it at home"-takes place

ays is on Sundays next door to

my heart! made sadder and wiser by the world's rough experiences, bear witness!-very indul

and on the whole, I think she was right. An unexpected compromise came to my rescue, however: Isaac Irvine's bees were in the parish of Cripple Charlie's father, within a stone's throw (by the bee-master's strong arm) of the church itself, which was a small minster among the moo

as too much excited-and I willingly accepted some large sandwiches made with thick slices of home-made

ly from the bombastic nature of the pattern, and partly because it was big enough for any grown-up man. "It made me look like a tramping sailor," she said. I did not tell her that this was precisely the effect at which I aimed

e as I swaggered with a business-like gait by Isaac's side up the first long hill, having set my hat on the back of my head with an affectation of profuse he

g out of chapel, ma'am!" said our housemaid ov

clearness was prophetic of the coming weather, and over which the wind was supposed to blow with uncommon "healthfulness." I had been there once to blow away the who

when we reached a wayside trough, whose brimming measure was for e

aster Isaac, seating himself on th

bells moved too slowly for either the second or the t

andwiches, and washed them down with handfuls of the running rill, so fresh, so cold, so limpid, that (like the saints and martyrs of a faith) it would convert

time that the little "Tom Tin

ecked at the churchyard gate by an inst

, sir," said the bee-

we had a good view within, and could also catch a peep through the open porch of the sunlit country outside. Charlie's father was in his place when we got in; his threadbare c

re interests beyond petty and personal ones are rare, the soft brows and tender lips of girlhood are too often puckered and hardened by mean anxieties, even where these do not affect the girls personally, but only imitatively, and as the daily interests of their station in life. In such cases the discon

hich keep their aims and faiths apart from the fluctuations of "the things that are seen." The personal influence of natures of this type is generally very large, and it was very large in the cas

to the enthusiasm of the minister; not merely to his personal worth, nor even to his popularity, for people who rather dislike a clergyman, and disapprove of his service, will say a louder Amen at his giving of thanks if his own feelings have a touch of fire, than they w

utmost of his ability. I may add that Isaac and I involuntarily displayed a zeal which was in excess of our Sunday customs; and if my tongue moved glibly enough with the choir, the bee-master foun

ns (and invariably this one) with my dear mother, on Sunday evening after supper. When we were good, we liked it, and, picking one favourite after another, we often sang nearly through the hymn-book. When we were naughty, we displayed a good deal of skill in making derisive faces behind my mother's back, as she sat at the piano, without betraying ourselves, an

e evening star

lustre o'er th

y-bit ready between

d of waiting half a beat for her-and away went the congregation-young men and maidens, old men and children-in one broad tide of somewhat irregular harmony. Isaac did not know the words as well as I did, so I lent him my hymn-book; one result of

awful truth our

vealed on insp

hours in vain

lavish shall l

hymn. It was also the custom to sing the last verse as loudly as possible, though this is by no means invariably appropriate. It fitted the present occasion fairly enough. From where I stood I could see the bellows-blower (the magnetic current of enthusiasm flowed even to the back of the organ) nerve himself to prodigious pumping-Charlie's sister drew out all the stops-the vicar pass

en, in Whom our

nds us, and Whos

rdian, and in d

be Thine till

re was neither wind nor sun, but the air was almost oppressively pure. The moonshine had taken the colour out of the sandy road and the heather, and had painted black shadows by every boulder, and most things looked asleep except the rill tha

as all I could say when I

d you can thank your mother, sir, with old Isaac's duty, for sending us to church. I'm sure I don't know why I never went before when I was up yonder,

pple Charlie's father came to l

ther's heart by confessing as much. Let me confess it now, and confess also that if it was the first time, it was not the last that I have h

me under a boulder, I had caught sight of a bit of white heather, and then bethought me of gathering a nosegay (to include this rarity) of moor flowers and grasses for Mrs. Wood. So when we reached the lane on our way hom

ad got over that silly squeak women alw

hat a turn you did give me!

ramp?"

er her. I wish you'd go and look for her, Master Jack, and fetch her in. It's as damp as dear knows what, and she takes no more care of herself th

ry Anne's bidding without further parley. There was a cloud over the moon as I ran down the back garden,

s hair coming against the darker part of hers, I could see that his was grey all over. Up to this point I had been too much stupefied to move, and I had just become conscious that I ought to go, when the white cap lying in the moonlight seemed to catch his eye as it had caught mine; and he set his heel on it with a vehemence that made me

the bunch of flowers still in my hand, she

. "No, Mother.

ed at the farm as yo

d!" s

ou see Mrs.

but she'd got the

to me, for I had been brought up to rank tramps in the same "dangerous class" with

e," I explained, qu

ith Mrs. Wood?" aske

n bewilderment, and was reckless o

r head, and