THE GENERAL CARE 



not to attempt to grow plants. Her attempts 

 will be quite likely to result in failure, as they 

 should. I have no sympathy for the woman 

 who puts plants in her window simply be- 

 cause her neighbors have them. You must 

 have flowers i7i the heart before you can have 

 them in the window, or anywhere else. 



As regards temperature: We make ovens 

 of most of our houses. We allow the ther- 

 mometer to run up to eighty, ninety, often a 

 hundred, and because the heat furnishes us 

 a sort of pleasant sensation we fail to under- 

 stand why our plants do not do well in it, 

 and we also wonder, quite frequently, why we 

 do not feel brisker, livelier, and healthier 

 generally. We keep the fires going, we keep 

 the windows and doors closed against fresh 

 air, and when we begin to feel drowsy, and 

 stupid, and languid, we think we have taken 

 cold, and most likely we open the fire-drafts 

 a little wider, and put in more fuel, and burn 

 all the oxygen out of the atmosphere, and make 

 a little surer that none of the sweet, pure air 

 of God's out-of-doors can find its way in to 

 relieve the general congestion of things. We 

 worry about our house-plants freezing, while 

 all the time we are doing our best to roast 



104 



