338 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



offered to the boy or girl under a certain age who would bring there, 

 on a certain day, i he finest collection of wild flowers. This happened 

 to be the day, and such an array as was presented, the children, as 

 well as the flowers, attracting much attention. Directly the prize 

 was awarded, I heard the proprietor order the flowers sent to a cer- 

 tain hospital, and as the children filed out each was given a little 

 memento, as a keepsake. 



Personally I do not care to see a living room in our homes turned 

 into a conservatory. I am too jealous of the beneficial effects of 

 the healing sunshine to ourselves and our children to fill each and 

 every window so full of plants that one can scarcely see out of doors. 

 Let there be a few favorites on brackets on either side of a south 

 window. Let vines run over the top, with perhaps a hanging-basket 

 in the center, if the window is large enough. You will get a pretty 

 view of the out-door snow scene. In the summer, have all of the 

 flowers that you can attend to, on the porches, on balconies, in 

 window-boxes, in symmetrical beds and, failing in these, put them 

 in your vegetable garden; give them even no more care than the 

 vegetables receive, and you will be well repaid by quantities of 

 flowers for in-door ornament. 



Let me give you a bit of personal experience: Last summer we 

 were building a new house, and there was no place to raise flowers 

 near the house or in the door-yard. But my daughter said she must 

 have flowers somewhere, so she sowed the seed in the vegetable 

 garden, gave it the little care and attention that she stole from her 

 many arduous duties, and the comfort those flowers gave our home 

 invalid was inestimable. The routine of the daily trip to the garden 

 for the dinner was enlivened by the picking of huge handfuls of 

 sweet peas, that made our home rich with dainty fragrance. 



Just the other day I received a Christmas letter from au invalid 

 sister. In it were leaves from a rose geranium in her own home, as 

 fresh as when picked, although a thousand miles away. Surely the 

 giving and receiving of so fragrant a momento was a rare pleasure. 

 If your invalid friend is physically able, then let her wait on and 

 do for herself all that is possible. It were better to tire ourself 

 physically than to feel that one is useless and forever shelved from 

 life's greatest happiness, that of doing for others. 



The entertaining of some hobby has carried many an invalid past 

 the shoals of despondency and despair, and has, at last, anchored 

 the poor, pain-racked body in a haven of rest and health. 



Now, lest you think me visionary and impracticable, let me show 

 you the sitting room of one of the " shut-ins." There are many 

 home-like beauties about the room, but first is the flood of sunshine 

 that permeates every corner. There are these southern windows 

 side by side, another window to the east, and still another window 

 facing the west. The sun looks in from sunrise to sunset, and the 

 moon, too, is a picture of beauty in the clear nights. There are 

 books, magazines, news and literary papers of all kinds in great 

 profusion. In one corner of the room stands a piano, and there is 

 at least oae " shut-in," who, although her life holds many days of 



