A SEASONS WORK WITH CHILDREN AND FLOWERS. Ill 



was put in the papers regarding the children's work, and the first 

 IxDuquet was an event. It is needless to say that the chairman of the 

 committee was kept very busy answering the door bell and receiving 

 bouquets and greeting the many wistful faces, wanting to know 

 "Am I the first," "Is mine the best?" Justice and inclination had 

 quite a strenuous altercation. Justice said, "There is but one first 

 and one best." Inclination, soft-hearted, contended that all the 

 bouquets brought, represented just so many attempted "firsts and 

 bests" and should be recognized. Suffice it to say that something 

 was given to the owner of each bouquet'. There were about twenty 

 of these. 



This left 224 children without any recognition, and naturally 

 Ihese were the very ones that needed our effort's most. So we an- 

 nounced a flower carnival for the second week in August and asked 

 the children to take good care of their flowers, so as to help make a 

 grand show. A flower committee was sent to visit every child and to 

 report on what had been done, and at fhe same time to visit every 

 place where flowers were grown to ask for contributions for the 

 show. The carnival was to cover the afternoons of two days. A large 

 room (our city hall) was secured, and the preceding day the children 

 were told t'o bring the results of their labors. The flowers came in 

 by the armful and basketful, and it required about a dozen assistants 

 to take the flowers, and to pin a ribbon badge with the words 

 "Flower Carnival, 1905," on each child. This badge entitled the 

 child wearing it to free entrance during the daytime. All others 

 were charged five cents. Each child's bouquet was carefully labelled 

 and placed in a fruit jar, the different grades (school grades) being 

 placed by themselves. The display exceeded our fondest expecta- 

 tions. Our hall was very beautiful. In addition to giving the chil- 

 dren a good time, we were desirous of making some money to con- 

 time the work; so attractive booths were erected for selling candy, 

 Russian tea, cake and ice cream. A piano in the room gave an op- 

 portunity for frequent vocal and instrumental numbers, and recita- 

 tions were given by the children. Plenty of chairs in the room gave 

 opportunity for resting and listening. On the evening of the last day, 

 a fine musical program was rendered, with an admittance fee of 

 twentyfive cents. When the debris was cleared away, and all ex- 

 penses paid, we had a surplus of about $80.00 on hand, together 

 with a whole lot of enthusiasm and courage with which to take up the 

 work for another year. 



To sum up the results of the season's work: Every one was 

 justly proud of the greatly improved lawns ; the flowers of the 244 

 children had brightened up just so many yards. The town's people 



