SOME EARLY FLOWERS 281 



" Goodness me, boy, it's nothing but charlock ! " she 

 exclaimed. 



" Yes, I know," said Billy. " And they are very 

 pretty ; just you look at them perhaps you never 

 knew how pretty they are." Then he added senten- 

 tiously, "They are flowers, and all flowers are 

 beautiful." 



" Dear, dear ! " said she for only reply, handing him 

 back his bouquet. 



" When I get home," continued Billy, " Til put 

 them in water to keep them fresh and set them on 

 the table," and away he drove. 



Billy with his charlock flowers reminds me of an 

 incident on a farm in Hampshire where I was staying. 

 The farmer was a hard-headed and very hard-working 

 man absorbed in the great business of keeping his 

 farm like a farm and of making it pay. Tares, turnip- 

 fly, charlock, couch-grass and their like these were 

 his enemies which he hated. And his wife was his 

 worthy helpmate. 



One day I brought in a big bunch of poppies, and 

 after arranging them on their tall stems with some 

 feathery grasses in a vase I put them on the table just 

 laid for the midday meal. The farmer came in fresh 

 from his work, his mind as usual absorbed in his 

 affairs, and first taking up the carving-knife and fork 

 hurriedly said, " For what we are about to receive," 

 and was just going to plunge the fork into the joint 

 when he caught sight of the splendid flowers before 

 him on his own table, audaciously smiling their scarlet 

 smile right at him. 



