THE SOCIAL FLOWERS. 



" r I ^HERE," said the preacher, as he held up a 

 handful of flowers before the loungers on 

 JL the piazza, " is a prophecy of the Chicago 

 strikes and of the Chicago Exposition. That bunch 

 of wild blossoms out of our pasture foretells New 

 York and Boston and London. They blazed the 

 path for the founders of the American Union. It is 

 not too much to say that they foreshadow the king- 

 dom of heaven." 



Nobody seemed to make out what the dominie 

 was driving at, and so nobody made any remarks or 

 comment upon what he had said. Nobody is ex- 

 pected to listen very carefully to what dominies say 

 on their vacations ; and it was the general impression 

 that this sententious speech was nothing but a poor 

 paradox, veiling some attenuated joke or other, such 

 as the clergy off duty are much given to. So there 

 was an inquiring silence while the company waited 

 for the explanation which they knew was sure to 

 follow ; and when the stroller had seated himself 

 and displayed the spoils of his afternoon's campaign, 

 he expounded his paradox. In the words of the 

 newspaper reporter, " among other things, he said " : 



95 



