32 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



" I'll tell you," speaks up her parents. " She don't want to 

 do anything but read, that's the matter." 



Then we are to understand that she takes more time for 

 reading than you are willing to allow her for her book? 

 "Allow?" " No need of allowing her any time for a book, 

 she'll take enough without that I" 



•' Then in order to have her bone she's got to steal it? In 

 other words, if she takes any time for reading at all, she 

 must take it by stealth; and yet the very sight of gold and 

 green or a new book cover causes a thrill to run through 

 her as the sunshine filtered through the green leaves above 

 Jack. And of the leaves of the forest there are no two alike, 

 and the Good Father says to all, grow. 



" But we can't have Mary dowdling over her book, and 

 the mother around washing the dishes." 



That's true. Every Mary must do her share of helping 

 mother, and more if she be the stronger. " But she won't 

 as long's that book's left in sight." 



There are some words formed in an old book that reads: 

 " To every thing there is a season, and a time to every pur- 

 pose under the sun^ On top of those words lay that boois:, 

 fresh from the impress of another's mind, and say: "Mary, 

 there's a book you'll like, when you get time for it." Time! 

 Won't that girl get time, if time means ih.i^'^ Try her. 

 Leave the book in sight, with your approval stamped upon 

 it, and see if it does not prove sucli an incentive to well 

 doing in her homely task, as you never dreamed. Leave it 

 where its silent communings shall be hers as she flits through 

 the morning's tasks, speaking to her, as it will, of a parent's 

 loving forethought, that has provisioned an arbor of rest 

 beside life's high-way, that her young feet may not grow 

 a-weary. 



■ And if in spite of your counsel she seems to love her 

 book over well Yio^e patience with her. It is but meet that 

 having planted these young spirits by our fireside, that we 

 deal tenderly with them, giving them a fair chance to come 

 face to face with the inspiration of their life. For while 

 you may have met yours in some of the more prosaic walks 

 of life. Jack may meet his in the heart of the woods he 



