2 
SEEO-TIME AH© HARVEST. 
FRUIT OR FLOWER. 
When orchards smile, and our gardens bloom 
In rainbow beauty from day to day, 
And verdant leaflet and nodding plume 
Keep time to music the breezes play, 
How sweet the bower 
When sun and shower 
Uiifold the bud and reveal the flower! 
Along the meadows in gleaming lines 
From year to year in promise writ; 
Tassels and tendrils of clinging vines 
Are never weary proclaiming it; 
As bells in the tower 
Toll forth the hour, 
They herald the fruit that follows the flower. 
We may watch and wait, but can hasten not 
The sweet fruition our hearts desire, 
Nor gather the grape or the apricot 
Until they are fed with the noonday Are: 
Though the fields we scour. 
We have no power 
To harvest the fruit that is stiil in flower. 
But when the orchards are pink and white, 
And all the meadows are green and gay. 
In the promise given we take delight, 
And breathe the fragrance that comes in May, 
Nor ask for the dower 
Of a riper hour, 
For the perfect fruit in the time of flower. 
—Josephine Pollard. 
JAMIE’S SUCCESS. 
BY HENRY WALTER, JR. 
All was bustle and excitement at Farmer 
Jones’s house, not that all the things which 
the good old farmer undertook were done 
in the flurry of excitement, because it was 
far from that, whatever he undertook was 
carried out with great care and precision; 
this was a special occasion, he desired to 
get his son Jamie off to the city on the 
earliest train. Jamie, his only son, was a 
strong and healthy boy of sixteen, and was 
going to the great dingy city to make his 
fortune. Through his father he had ob¬ 
tained a position in his uncle’s store as 
clerk, at a salary that seemed a fortune to 
him. Although he had not attended school 
much, yet he was naturally smart, and by 
reading had picked up much valuable in¬ 
formation. It could be clearly seen, by one 
look at his frank, honest face, that in what¬ 
ever undertaking he might be engaged, he 
entertained not the least doubt of success. 
And now he seemed to think that the quiet, 
healthy life on the farm, with which he had 
formerly been so well contented, was 
nothing compaied with the thrift and in¬ 
dustry of city life, as it had been pictured 
to him. So, on this bright July morning, 
he set out, with the best wishes of his poor 
but honest parents, and great expectations 
in his heart. On such occasions as this, all 
boys are very apt to build air-castles, and 
in this Jamie proved an adept. In the cars, 
passing through cut and then over level 
plains clothed in verdure, and presenting 
to the eye most beautiful scenes as they 
whirled along to their destination, Jamies 
thoughts would go forward to the future; 
how it made his heart throb to think of the 
time when he expected to support his a^ed 
parents in ease and comfort in the great city. 
Somehow he seemed to think life would 
lose half its pleasures were he without their 
presence. Then he thought of his uncle, 
thoughtful and pleasant as he had always 
been on his visits to his father’s farm, with 
such a jovial, round face and bright twink¬ 
ling eyes, and a kind word for all. He was 
a large retailer in silks, jewelry and furnish¬ 
ing goods, and with his large army of 
clerks and assistants, his establishment 
was the largest in the city. Jamie, however, 
did not have much time in which to exer¬ 
cise his thoughts. The city was but a short 
distance from the village in which he lived, 
and before he was aware of the fact, he had 
reached his destination, and found himself 
in company with another boy on his way to 
his uncle’s store. As this was his first visit 
to the city it appeared wonderful—the 
church spires, rising to stately heights, 
among the clouds, and the mammoth build¬ 
ings, covering squares—all excited his curi¬ 
osity, and question after question was 
poured forth to his companion, till the lat¬ 
ter was only too glad when his employer’s 
store was reached. Here, but for the guide, 
Jamie would not have known which way 
to turn. They passed along, past great 
piles of fabrics and cases of shining jewels, 
through erowds of purchasers and errand 
boys, past numerous book-keepers and ac¬ 
countants, and at last arrived at a small 
room, in the farthest end of the store, where 
Jamie found his uncle, before a desk and 
surrounded by various papers; it was sev¬ 
eral moments before he looked up, so intent 
