Cutting, Packing, Shipping 147 



up. "They don't look so very nice, after all, 

 Muvver. Why?" 



It is the human impulse to gather flowers and 

 to share them with others. No child is normal 

 unless he has done it; and it is only left for us 

 to show him with kindness and tact just how 

 to do it so that the flowers themselves do not 

 suffer. 



Travelling in to town we see the "city folks" 

 bearing tightly in their hands bouquets of little 

 ball-shaped dahlias on three-inch stems. They 

 have spent the week-end with Cousin Kate, and 

 Cousin Kate's garden is resplendent in its 

 September glory. The dahlias there are the 

 same that Aunt Prudence, Cousin Kate's mother, 

 had grown fifty years ago, and the roots have 

 been carefully stored in the potato cellar each 

 winter. Somehow the blossoms are not as large 

 or as fine in colour as in Aunt Prudence's day, 

 but then Cousin Kate has to look after the 

 chickens and do all the housework for the 

 family, and she has not so much time to tend 

 flowers as her mother had. Moreover, her 

 husband needs all the manure for the cornfield 

 and so the flower garden must do as best it can 

 without. But the little dahlias look beautiful 

 to city eyes and they are going to receive all the 

 best attention due them in return for the cheer 



