22 Success with Small Fruits. 



.as potatoes, and for a month or more can be eaten as a cheap and 

 wholesome food by all classes, even the poorest. By a proper selection 

 of varieties we, in our home, feast upon them six weeks together, and 

 so might the majority of those whose happy lot is cast in the country. 

 The small area of a city yard planted with a few choice kinds will often 

 yield surprising returns under sensible culture. 



If we cultivate these beautiful and delicious fruits we always have 

 the power of giving pleasure to others, and he 's a churl and she a pale 

 reflection of Xantippe who does not covet this power. The faces of our 

 guests brighten as they snuff from afar the delicate aroma. Our vines 

 can furnish gifts that our friends will ever welcome ; and by means of 

 their products we can pay a homage to genius that will be far more 

 grateful than commonplace compliments. I have 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 radiant 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 passing 

 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 correct!^ reveal the 

 coarse and brutal nature within, often become wistful and tender over 

 some simple flower or luscious fruit that recalls earlier and happier days. 

 These are gifts which offend no prejudices, and inevitably 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 heavenward. There are little suffering children also in the hospitals; 



