30 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



seen a letter from the Hon. Wm. C. Bryant, which is a rich 

 return for the few strawberries that were sent to him, and 

 the thought that they gave him pleasure gives the donor far 

 more. They are a gift that one can bestow and another 

 take without involving any compromise on either side, since 

 they belong to the same category as smiles, kind words, and 

 the universal freemasonry of friendship. Faces grow radi- 

 ant over a basket of fruit or flowers that would darken with 

 anger at other gifts. 



If, in the circle of our acquaintance, there are those shut 

 up to the weariness and heavy atmosphere of a sick-room, 

 in no way can we send a ray of sunlight athwart their pallid 

 faces more effectually than by placing a basket of fragrant 

 fruit on the table beside them. Even though the physician 

 may render it " forbidden fruit," their eyes will feast upon 

 it, and the aroma will teach them that the world is not pass- 

 ing on, unheeding and uncaring whether they live or die. 



The Fruit and Flower Mission of New York is engaged 

 in a beautiful and most useful charity. Into tenement- 

 houses and the hot close wards of city hospitals, true sisters 

 of mercy of the one Catholic church of love and kindness 

 carry the fragrant emblems of an Eden that was lost, but 

 may be regained even by those who have wandered farthest 

 from its beauty and purity. Men and women, with faces 

 seemingly hardened and grown rigid under the impress of 

 vice, that but too correctly reveal the coarse and brutal na- 

 ture within, often become wistful and tender over some sim- 

 ple flower or luscious fruit that recalls earlier and happier 

 days. These are gifts which offend no prejudices, and inevi- 

 tably suggest that which is good, sweet, wholesome and pure. 

 For a moment, at least, and perhaps forever, they may lead 

 stained and debased creatures to turn their faces heaven- 

 ward. There are little suffering children also in the hospi- 



