OB, HOW I BECAME A FLORIST. Ill 



warranted to pull any one out of any pickle, though they 

 sometimes get in themselves." And, laughing to himself, 

 he laid in my hand a package of seeds. 



" What shall I do with them? " 



" Get two hundred three-inch pots, and fill them with 

 fine soil from your violet house. Plant three of these 

 seeds in each pot. When the plants come up, remove all 

 but one from each pot. Keep them growing rapidly, 

 shifting them from pot to pot as they advance, and in about 

 sixty days you will see some flowers which I imagine will 

 be new to you." 



"But what are they ?" 



" Wait and you will see ; " and, with a pleasant smile, he 

 bade me good-night, and went his way. 



Miss Sampson also called. She told me not to be dis- 

 couraged by my disaster. It was not such an uncommon 

 occurrence. The best of florists' houses sometimes freeze, 

 and yet the owners always manage to get out of it somehow, 

 and there was no doubt that I should likewise. 



Now I cannot give you all the details of my doings for 

 the next three months. It would take more time than I 

 can command. I can only say that I went to work brave- 

 ly, and by the first of May had raised five thousand bedding- 

 plants and five thousand tomato plants. To bring this 

 about and to make up my deficit for the months of Feb- 

 ruary and March, I used up all I had made and all my 

 capital besides. In April my plants had so far recovered 



