FRUITS AND FLOWERS. 409 



The boys and girls should be taught to work together. The 

 boys can prepare the ground, put out the trees, bushes and vines. 

 The girls can plant the seeds, attend to their cultivation, and to 

 watering and weeding the flower beds. 



Yes, they all have a natural fondness for fruit and they love flow- 

 ers. This all orchardists and gardeners know, by the depredations 

 made apon their premises. It is also known by the eagerness with 

 which the boys and girls who live in the filthy alleys and dark 

 lanes in our large cities, seize the proffered fruit or flower to take 

 it (it may be) to a sick mother, sister or brother, to gratify and 

 cheer in their dark rooms. If every one did what he could to- 

 wards cultivating these fruits, which are considered as luxuries 

 and rarities, there would be enough to have them common to all, 

 to satisfy the poor alike with the rich. 



It may be said, that there may be utility in cultivating fruit, but 

 what is the benefit of flowers. They may be beautiful to look at 

 but they have no usefulness ? We find the birds, butterflies and 

 bees, &c, naturally hovering in close proximity to each other, and 

 who can say how great an influence the bright and varied blossoms 

 may have in drawing to our gardens the birds which feed upon the 

 insects which destroy our fruit, trees and shrubs. 



It will be remembered that Raphael painted his immortal frescoes 

 where thrones could be lifted in thought and feeling, by them, and 

 Michael Angelo hung the dome over St. Peter's so that the far 

 off peasants on the Campagna could see it, and the maiden kneel- 

 ing by the shrine in the Albian hills. These had their influence 

 and performed their uses, and so will the flower gardens filled 

 with the beautiful flowers. Go into the flower garden with some 

 fair young lady who has made herself beautiful and healthful by 

 working- among the flowers, and witness the pleasure she takes in 

 pointing out to you the beauties of one, the fragrance of another, 

 the frailty of a third, and so on, repeating the name of each ; then 

 go to the public halls, places of entertainment, parlors and bou- 

 doirs decorated with tasteful bouquets, festoons and wreaths. Go 

 also into the chambers of the sick, of the poor as well as the rich, 

 where the room is made pleasant by them, and to the chamber of 

 deatli where lie the remains of a loved friend surrounded by the 

 snowy buds and blossoms, looking more beautiful even than in life, 

 and then ask if flowers have no use. 



Not long since I visited a neighboring village ; while there I 

 took the opportunity of looking among the gardens. I saw one 



