536 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The following incident, contributed to Indoors and Outdoors, teaches a 

 useful lesson : I was taking a walk one day this summer under the grand 

 old elms that make the streets of New Haven look like the aisles of a great, 

 grand cathedral, when I saw three boys curiously watching an old gentleman 

 who was filling a bag with elm seeds. I came up just in time to hear the 

 old man ask the boys to finish filling the bag for him, as bending over so 

 long was tiresome for one of his age. They were bright-looking, good- 

 mannered fellows, and they soon carried the bag filled to the mouth to the 

 bench where the tired old gentleman had taken a seat. As they put it by 

 his side one of them asked what he wanted with such worthless stuff. 



"I will tell you willingly," said the gentleman, "and perhaps you will 

 be interested enough to give me a little more help. I went through the far 

 western part of our country last year, and so many places where there are 

 no trees that I thought I would do what I could to remedy the evil, for it is 

 really a very serious want. Now, I am going to send some little canvas bags 

 of elm seeds to all the postmasters out that way and see if they cannot get 

 some one to plant the road sides and anywhere else they like.'' 



"What a good idea!" said one of the boys. "Where do you get the 

 bags? " 



" That is easy, " was the answer. " I have four bright-eyed little grand- 

 daughters, and they have each an intimate little friend, and all this after- 

 noon the eight bright-eyed girls have been hard at work making the little 

 bags.'' 



"Oh," said the biggest boy, "that's the bag party my sister Susie and 

 cousin Kittie have gone to ; I didn't know what they meant when they 

 talked of it." 



"That must be it," said the old gentleman, "I don't believe there is any 

 other party of the kind. The girls are going to fill the bags and sew them 

 up and fasten on the tags I have written addresses on. Then they will 

 write some postal cards addressed to the same office.'" 



"How will they know what to write? " said one of the boys. 



4 'They will copy this," said the gentleman, taking a card out of his 

 pocket and putting on his spectacles to read it : 



"'Mr. Postmaster, will you give the bag of elm seeds you receive with 

 this to anybody in your town who is enterprising enough to plant them? ' 



"What makes you take all this trouble?" asks one of the boys. 



" Pro bono publico, my boy. Can you tell me what that means? ' 



"Yes, sir: for the good of the public." 



"That is it. I love my country, and I love the people who live in it. If 

 I were a rich man I should do great things for the public ; but even if I am 

 comparatively poor, I am not willing to die without doing some good work, 

 so I am going to leave my native land a legacy of trees. Every year that I 

 live I mean to send a supply of seeds to the AVest." 



One of the boys shouldered the bag to carry it home for the old gentle- 

 man, and the party moved off. 



The Children's Flower Garden. — It is all well enough to have things so 

 nice and orderly in front of the house that it seems out of character to step on 

 the turf or touch the hand to any of the beautiful objects of taste. Bu.; do, 

 in remembrance of your own childhood, and in the interests of your own chil- 

 dren (or your neighbor's if you are so unfortunate as not to have any), plant 



