CHRYSANTHEMUMS ^59 
brilliant shades of red and yellow. I inquired 
their name. 
“Oh, they are sweet-gum trees,” the nurseryman 
said, adding under his great moustache, '‘'‘Liquidam- 
har styracifluaJ^ 
“They are beautiful!” Joseph exclaimed en- 
thusiastically. “We have nothing at all like them 
at the Six Spruces.” 
“They grow well and rather quickly,” the nur- 
seryman urged. 
“How much would one cost?” I asked boldly, 
for, after all, this was the vital question. 
“Well,” came the answer, “I would let you have 
that large one there for eight dollars.” 
“We will take it,” I said promptly, and then 
wondered why I had done so. Joseph never uttered 
a word. 
The nurseryman marked a tag with our name, 
and said he would bring it and the weeping willow 
over and plant them for us as soon as the rain 
ceased. He wished, he said, to show us his 
Hercules’-clubs, aralia spinosa, fine shrubs for orna- 
mental planting; but Joseph already had me by the 
arm, and we were running as fast as we could 
towards the rockaway. 
“Eight dollars!” Joseph exclaimed, when we 
were once inside. “It is more than we have ever 
paid for any one thing before.” 
“But it is less,” I said, “than a new winter hat 
