Year: 1879

One day,not a great while ago, Mr.. Mid
dlerib, read a paragraph copied from the
Areger Landwirthschaftli Wochenblatt,
German paper, which is an accepted
authority on such points, stating that
the sting of bee was sure cure for
rheumatism, and citing several remark
able instances by which people had
been perfectly cured by this abrupt
remedy. Mr.. Middlerih did not stop
to reflect that paper with such name
as that would be very npt to say any
thing, he only thought of the rheuma-
tic twinges that grappled his knees
once in while, and made life a bur
den to him.


He read the article several times and
pondered over it. He understood that
TIE stinging must be done scientifically
and thoroughly. The bee, as he crap
ped by the ears and set down upon The
rheumatic joint. and held there until ii
stung itself stingless. He had some
misgivings about the matter He knew


it would hurt. He hardly thought il
could hurt any worse than rhermatism,
and it had been so many yesrs since he
was stung by bee that lie hao almost
forgotten what it felt like. He had,
however, q general feeling that it would
hurt some. But desperate diseases re
quire desperate remedies, and Mr.. Mid
dlerib was willing to undergo any
amount of suffering if it would cure
his rheumatism.


He contracted with Master Middleril
for limited supply of bees, hummins
and buzzing about in the summer air
but Mr.. Middletib did not know how tc
get them. He felt, however, that he
could safely depend upon the instincts
and methods of boyhood. He knew
that if there was any way in heafen OF
earth whereby the shyest bee that ever
lifted two hundred pound man off the
clover could be induced to enter wide
mouthed glass bottle, his son knew that
way.


For the small stun OF one dime
Master Middlerib agreed to procurs
several to-wit: six bees, sex and age
not specified; but, as Mr.. Middlerib
was left in uncertainty as to the race,
it was made obligatory upon the cons
tractor to have three of them honey
and three humble, or, in the generally
accepted vernacular, humble bees. Mr..
Middlerib did not tell his son what he
wanted those bees for, and the boy
went off on his mission with his head
so full of astonishment that it fairly
whirled. Evening brings all home, and
the last rays of the declining sun fell
upon Master Middlerib with short,
wide -mouthed bottle comfortable popu-
lated with hot ilInatured bees, and
Mr.. MiddIerib and dime. The dime
and the bottle changed hands. Mr..
Middlerib put the bottle in his coat
pocket ard went into the house, eyeing
everybody he met very suspicionsly,
as though he had made up his mlnd to
sting to death the first person who said
"bee" to him. He confided his guilty
secret to none of his family. He hid
his bees in his bedroom and as he look
ed at them just before putting them
away, he half wished the experiment
was safely over. He wished the i'm
prisoned bees did not look so hot and
cross. With exquisite care he snbmerg
ed the bottle in basin of water. and
let few drops in on the heated inn
mates to cool them off.


At the tea-table he had great fright.
Miss Middlerib, in the art'ess simple
ity Of her romantic nature, said:


''I smell bees. How the odor brings
up"


But her father glared at her, and
said, with superfuous harshnoss and
execrable grammar:


Hush mp! You don't smell nothing.


Whereupon Mrs. MiddIerib asked
bim if he had eaten anything that dis
agreed with him, aud Miss MiddIerih