Ornamental. 417 



THE SUNFLOWER'S STORY. 



You say I am only a sunflower, 



With petals as yellow as gold; 

 But if you will isten a minute 



A bit of a taie I'll unfold. 



'Twas way, way back in the springtime 



That a fairy shut up in a pod 

 Burst off her little brown jacket 



And left it down under the sod. 



"I can't be contented," she answered — 



When some one asked her to stay — 

 " 'Tis so dark and cold 'neath the damp earth mold; 



Above there is shining the day. 



" 'Tis only a short transition 



From a bud of promise rare 

 To the glorious full-grown blossom 



That revels in sun and air; 



"And soon as many as twenty — 



Ol beauties such as I — 

 Were turning to catch the sunshine, 



With our faces toward the sky." 



For this was the lesson that she taught us— 



This fairy mother of ours — 

 To be always seeking for sunshine 



Despite the clouds and showers. 



And so she pushed upward and upward — 



A thing most easily done 

 When our heart is right in the purpose. 



And our soul is wooed by the sun. 



But by and by through her being 



And strange, new impulse thrilled. 

 And she paused in happy silence 



While the birds 'mong her branches trilled. 



Then murmured in blissful accents: 



"I'm promised bud and bloom; 

 'Tis well I made the effort 



Else the pod had been my tomb." 



— I'elma Caldwell MelviiU, in How to Grow Flowers. 



THE MOCK OEANGE. 



In the beginning of Jnne — sometimes the latter part of May — and 

 for nearly two weeks afterward, one of the most attractive flowering 

 shrubs is the mock orange. It has a profusion of large, pure white 

 flowers, the fragrance of which resembles that of the orange blossoms; 



H— 27 



