30 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



may be brought into darkened homes by the 



brightness and the sweetness of flowers ! 



* The weary woman stays her task, 



That perfume to inhale ; 

 The pale-faced children pause to ask 

 What breath is on the gale. 



' And none that breathe that sweetened air, 

 But have a gentle thought ; 

 A gleam of something good and fair 

 Across the spirit brought,' 



Would that these inmates of alley and court, would 

 that these weary men and women, with their pale- 

 faced children, might breathe that sweetened air, 

 and see that gleam more oft ! ^ 



All honour to the owners of park and pleasaunce 

 who admit them therein, and to employers who 

 give them holidays to go ! Well does our great 

 poet plead, — 



' Why should not these great Sirs 

 Give up their parks a dozen times a year, 

 To let the people breathe ? ' 



Why should there not be great public gardens, and 

 great public flower-shows, in or near all our towns ? 

 When the Council of the Manchester Botanical 

 Society, advised by their clever, energetic curator, 



^ A friend of mine, a lady, who is much among the poor in the 

 east of London, took a bunch of primroses to a miserable attic, and 

 placed it on the table. The woman, who occupied the room, gazed 

 for a moment at the flowers, and then, overpowered by the memory 

 of happier, purer days, she burst into tears ! 



