18o6.] The Strawberry Seedling. 311 



expressed some surprise to her host, inquiring, at the same time, if the 

 strawberries were from neighboring greenhoupes? But being told that 

 they grew in the open air, and were constant bearers, the idea imme- 

 diately suggested itself of preserving some of the seeds for friends at 

 home, and among these, a letter from Paris notified us that we should 

 not be forgotten. Accordinoly, our kind utilitarian Aunt crushed some 

 of the finest berries upon thick brown paper, and, after exposing them to 

 dry in the sun, carefully rolled up the paper, and placed it in one of hvr 

 traveling trunks. 



During that winter, our friend returned to the United States, by way 

 of England ; arriving at New York, her next destination was their 

 homestead at New Haven, and there Aunt Charlotte took possession of 

 her own furnished house, which had been rented for the term of her 

 absence. Among the first duties, she ordered her newly-hired servant- 

 woman (or, as the good people of Connecticut sometimes call them— 

 " help "—probably becai:se they allow their employers to help them- 

 selves), was to unpack the trunks, and put the things into the wardrobes 

 and bureaus ; finding, as she performed this task, a roll of common 

 brown paper, she, of course, threw it into the fire, and, in another 

 moment, the Paris Strawberry seeds were so many useless grains of 

 ashes. Thus seemed to perish all the good intentions of our obliging 

 Aunt Charlotte, who needed to be the cheerful and sensible Christian 

 that she is, in order to bear patiently the heedless act of her Irish 

 -help." 



It was but a few weeks after this sad event when Aunt Charlotte came 

 to visit us at " Clover Hill," and related the ill-fortune that had befallen 

 her brown paper of seeds, some of which she had designed f jr us ; and 

 as she finished the account of her disappointment, the thought suddenly 

 came to her, and she said : " i have that v-ery identical trunk here loith 

 me now, and 1 wonder if some of -the strawherry seeds may not have been 

 ruhhed o^ from the paper, and remained at the bottom of the trunk!'' 



She went to examine, and, accordingly, on very minute search in all 

 corners and cracks, she returned triumphantly to the sitting-room with 

 three little specks upon the palm of her hand, almost invisible to the 

 naked eye, but which, she thought, might be some of the detached 

 seeds. Handing them to me with a request that they should be tried, I 

 went at once in search of a small flower-pot, and, spite of laughing 

 doubts, filled it with light soil, and deposited the three gi^ains of what 

 seemed like just so much additional sand. 



More merriment than hope attended my planting, and various were 

 the speculations suggested, as from day to day I anxiously watched for 



