53 



also an odd volume of " The Gardener's Monthly," and six 

 numbers of " The American Agriculturist." As the rain 

 continued to fall, I did not venture into the garden to make 

 a list of the stock of growing plants out of doors ; but. 

 opening my husband's desk, searched through his papers 

 for any bills of plants he might have purchased for the 

 garden, as the bills would show the original cost of my 

 plants. I found quite a number of them, but could not 

 make out all the details ; indeed, to be honest, I did not 

 know the names of all the flowers I had in my grounds. 

 For instance, hybrid perpetual roses were entered at four 

 dollars a dozen, and tea roses at the same price. But what 

 the difference was, I could not understand. So the bills 

 helped me but little as far as the prices were concerned. 

 Some things I understood readily, such as heliotrope, 

 which was put down at a dollar and a half per dozen. Tak- 

 ing this as a starting point, I could easily arrive at the cost 

 and then estimate the probable return from the four dozen 

 heliotrope plants in my possession. They cost six dollars. 

 I had cut already at least one dozen flowers, nine different 

 days. This, at a shilling a dozen, would be nine dollars, 

 leaving me three dollars for the labor already spent in their 

 cultivation. How much I might expect to cut for the re- 

 mainder of the summer was more than I could guess ; yet 

 I felt safe in estimating a return of three dollars a week 

 until the frost should destroy them in the fall. Thus it 

 was plain, if I could make all my flowers pay at this rate, 



6* 



