THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 437 



Doubtless some of you will be disappointed that no definite statement 

 concerning the financial profits of horticultural occupations has been 

 given in this paper and that there is more to discourage than to encour- 

 age women from going into them. While I have the utmost sympathy 

 for women who wish to lead out-of-door lives, I wish to emphasize the 

 fact that there is no ''light work and easy money" in any of them. Like 

 other businesses a living can be made, and from small beginnings wealth 

 is sometimes attained, but that is due to the individual rather than to 

 the occupation. The main difficulty, as in all other lines, is disposing 

 of the products, whether they be cut flowers, seeds or professional serv- 

 ices that are to be disposed of. I wish, too, to emphasize that it is 

 originality that counts. Try to do something that but few are doing and 

 tliat you feel you can excel in. 



This paper would be unfinished did I not cite the experiences of one 

 woman whose life has been my chief inspiration. She was a house- 

 keeper, little children clung to her skirts, poverty stared her in the face, 

 ill health dogged her footsteps, her only assets were boundless enthu- 

 siasm, dauntless courage, an overwhelming love of plants and an abiding 

 confidence in herself. She was almost forty when she began her work 

 and at her death, twenty-five years later, she was known in two conti- 

 nents. I refer to my mother, the late Theodosia B. Shepherd. It may 

 be that you, too, are a housekeeper, that little children cling to your 

 .skirts, and that it is necessary for you to assist in making the living, too, 

 just so can you adjust outside work with that inside if the call is strong 

 enough. You, too, may labor in the burning sun, in cold winds and 

 damp fogs, with soiled clothing and a tired body ; you will have sorrows, 

 malice and envy seek to destroy you, friends prove faithless, disappoint- 

 ments rend your heart; but through it all like Chanticleer, you, too, 

 will have your work. So if your soul cries out to be free from the 

 pettiness of daily life, if you long for the blue sky above and the brown 

 earth beneath your feet and the flutter of a little flower calls you, slip 

 your hand in that of the Infinite Teacher and follow on. 



3— 2710G 



