TIIE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
85 
abed if they choose to. It’s the early bird as gets the 
first worm.” 
One must bring as much patience to the art of house¬ 
wifery as she would bring to bear in learning music, in 
carving a statue, or painting a picture. Everything 
cannot be done in a moment. To wait without working 
is idleness; to work without waiting is haste and waste; 
to work and wait both is to be at peace. No words are 
truer than those of the old Mussulman, “ God’s blessing 
is upon the patient.” Irritations and annoyances must 
needs occur in the best home. But they are naught but 
small clouds that will vanish like dew before sunshine 
in the presence of the calmness of faith and serenity of 
mind at peace with God and the world. 
Do you remember the story of the patient Griselda 
in the Decameron ? She was a poor country girl brought 
up to tend sheep and to do the humble cooking in her 
father’s cottage. Walter, the Marquis of Salugge, 
marries her, and the beautiful, modest girl enters upon 
life in a palace. She has tact and good sense and un¬ 
limited patience. She is mistress of a household of 
servants, but she tends to the work herself. When she 
is about to be turned from the palace to make way, 
as she thought, for a new marchioness, she sees 
to the arrangements of the wedding feast, cooks 
the most cunning dishes, makes the beds, sweeps 
the rooms, and hangs the tapestry. She neglects 
nothing, and the old castle smiles under the touch of 
her fingers. 
Griselda is the model housekeeper as well as the model 
wife. Order, patience, frugality, skill in cooking and 
mending, art in the kitchen and grace in the hall, these 
are the secrets of housekeeping. Pleasant service is when 
one knows how to render it skillfully, and the best 
housekeeper is she who knows how to improve upon 
skillful work. F. M. Colby. 
TO THE MARCH FLOWERS. 
Keep your muddy covers close, flowers, 
Nor dare to open your eyes, 
For all this month your lover, the Sun, 
Will only tell you lies. 
He will only tell you lies, flowers, 
Pretty and undesigned, 
For through this rough and cloudy month 
He never knows his mind. 
The Daffodil may look at him 
With her bright and angry eyes, 
But Pinks that come with their hearts in their 
mouths 
Must wait for warmer skies. 
O Daisies, stay in y our grassy house. 
Ye poor deluded things; 
And keep your little white fingers shut 
Away from his golden rings. 
Ye Meadow-Lilies, leopard-like, 
Under the mould so deep, 
Crouch close, and keep your spotted cubs 
For a month yet fast asleep. 
Trust not, ye modest Violets, 
His promises to you, 
Nor dare upon his fickle smile 
To broaden your kerchiefs blue. 
Ye little twinkling Marigolds, 
’Tis wise sometimes to doubt, 
And though the winds should shake his moans 
To music, look not out. 
’Tis a rough and churlish month, flowers; 
So heed ye my advice, 
Else you will wake to go to sleep 
With cheeks as cold as ice. 
—Alice Cary. 
LOVE OF PLANTS. 
The following is an extract from a celebrated work 
(Ray's Flora), and the truth and excellence of its senti¬ 
ments make it well worth remembering : 
“Fair houses are more frequent than fine gardens; 
the first effected by artificers only, the latter requiring 
more skill in the owner—few gardens being found well 
furnished out of the hands of an affectionate florist. 
The love of such a master will keep each tender plant 
alive his care and skill have collected, for never was art 
or excellence liked or lo red by the ignorant; it is knowl¬ 
edge that begets affection, and affection increaseth 
knowledge. Love was the inventor, and is still the 
maintainer of every noble science. It is chiefly that 
which has made my flowers and trees to flourish, 
though planted in a barren desert, and hath brought me 
to the knowledge I now have in plants and planting; 
for, indeed, it is .impossible for any man to have any 
considerable collection of noble plants to prosper unless 
he love them, for neither the goodness of the soil nor 
the advantage of the situation will do it without the 
master’s affection; it is that which animates and renders 
them strong and vigorous, without which they will 
languish and decay through neglect, and soon cease to 
do him service. 
“ I have seen many gardens of the new model in the 
hands of unskillful persons with good walks, walls and 
grass-plots, but in the most essential adornment so defi¬ 
cient that a green meadow is a more delightful object; 
there Nature alone, without the aid of Art, spreads her 
verdant carpets, spontaneously embroidered with many 
pretty plants and pleasing flowers, far more inviting 
than such an immured nothing; and as noble fountains, 
i 
