THE LADIES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
243 
patiently ? But the song died away, her foot stopped its 
monotone on the cradle rocker, and she pauses in her 
reading at a florist’s advertisement. “ Wanted, lily of the 
valley, also lilium longiflorum and heliotrope. Apply at 
Bayne Brothers, Elder street.” A flush of surprise, and 
then a look of determination came over her face. Why 
should she not avail herself of this chance to make a 
little pocket-money ? There was a large straggling bed 
of lilies-of-the-valley in a moist corner of the old garden; 
she had often wished they could be dug out, but the 
roots were tough and tangled, and they were just coming 
into bloom now. Then the tall white lilies would blos¬ 
som when the others were gone, and she had a bed of 
fine heliotrope on a sunny slope. It seemed as if a kind 
providence had directed her eyes to that particular col¬ 
umn, and she could hardly wait for the children to re¬ 
turn from school at two o'clock in the afternoon, to 
investigate this opportunity of making a little money. 
When Annie came in and threw down her bag of books 
her mother was ready and with many strict injunctions, 
as to the care of the baby and of the fire, she started for 
Bayne Brothers, taking with her a bunch of the opening 
lilies. The florists were at home, and busy making up a 
large wedding order; they told her in pauses between 
the work that a piece of their garden had been sold; they 
had only leased it and the purchaser was now building 
on it; that their lily-of-the-valley beds, and plots of lilium 
longiflorum had to be removed and did not flower; hence 
the advertisement. They could, however, take all she 
had every season, if put up in good shape; also, later on, 
the chrysanthemuns and any other good white flowers 
she might have. The flowers were to be picked before 
sunrise, and sent to a grocery near her home, where their 
wagon stopped at six a. M. with vegetables. They gave 
her two small wooden boxes promising to leave more at 
the store, and to exchange them every day. “ I see you 
want to make a little money, ma’am, and it’s a mutual 
benefit, so if you pack ’em tight, and put in plenty of 
leaves, tie up in bunches of twenty-five each, they will 
come all right. But no sun—pick ’em early; better do 
it over-night than let a sunbeam on ’em.” And promis¬ 
ing her a dollar apd a half per hundred, and the same 
for lilies and heliotrope, the florists went on with their 
work, and Mrs. Crosby returned to her home, content to 
be able to earn the dollars she had that morning coveted 
apparently so hopelessly. 
No plan ever succeeded better, and this mine of flowers 
in the shaded dell lasted for ten days, and then dwindled 
away. But the long-flowered white lilies were in bloom, 
and they needed a larger box and more careful packing. 
When the first of them were sent away they looked so 
very dingy and forlorn that Mrs. Crosby had misgivings 
that all was not right, and in the afternoon her fears were 
realized by the appearance of one of the Bayne Brothers 
at her front door. 
“Them lilies ain’t no good, ma’am,” he said; “you 
must break off them yellow centres, or all that pollen 
dust will go over the flower,” and he went out in the 
garden and dexterously detached the top from the sta¬ 
mens. “ There now, send ’em clean and white ; you lost 
that lot, but it needn’t happen again.” 
When the summer was over and only the shrubs of 
Hydrangea paniculata stood in the garden, to be shorn 
as late white flowers, except a border of sweet alyssum 
that was cut every day, the little woman sat down to 
count her profits. It had been quite an effort to tell Mr. 
Crosby, as she did long before, but he only took it as a 
joke and thought no more about it. 
Now the returns were dwindling down, and soon all 
would be over. She had sown pansy seed earty in the 
season and the beds were full of purple and white bloom, 
the new white pansy showing conspicuously. “ Put your 
old hot-bed sashes over ’em, and if you water and air ’em 
regular they’ll flower till Christmas,” advised Mr. Bayne, 
and this she determined to do. 
Many comforts for the children had been purchased, 
and she had a balance of forty dollars, with which she 
intended to treat herself to a new cloak. While she mused 
over it before the fire, and tried to decide if she would get 
a cheap suit of all wool, or only a cloak of heavier ma¬ 
terial, her husband came in looking jaded and harassed. 
“ What is the matter,” she asked timidly. 
“ Oh ! ” was his peevish reply, “ the butcher came to 
the office to-day and left his bill, right before all the 
clerks. I haven’t anything to pay it with, and he said he 
would call to-morrow. I had no idea it had mounted up 
to forty dollars.” 
Her heart gave a sudden leap, and a wave of generous 
impulse took possession of her. 
“ I have that amount. I—I—intended to get a new 
cloak with it, but it doesn’t matter, if you need it.” 
He knew how niggardly he had been to her, and knew 
also the price of cigars of the finest brand, of which she 
had no suspicion. So he turned to her in sudden amaze¬ 
ment. 
“ Where in thunder did you get it ? ” 
“ Hush ! ” she answered ; “ you know how it is. I made 
it selling flowers. It’s a regular business, and a good 
one, too, only its over now, for autumn has come. They 
only take white ones, or pale blossoms; but I got the 
children shoes and hats, and have been able to get the 
winter flannels made before we needed to wear them. 
It 7 >iay save Lena from that bad croup she had last year.” 
Here she paused, and took from an inner drawer four 
ten-dollar bills. “ Take them—-never mind the cloak.” . 
“ Do you take me for a brute,” he roared, in scornful 
rage, “ to let you scrape up money in this way and then 
take it from you ? ” 
“ It was pleasant work,” she said, gently, “ the children 
and I like it, and I am going to have pansies to sell at the 
holidays.” 
“ Well, you are a woman with brains,” he answered, 
admiringly. “ I shall go down town and stir up Jim For¬ 
rester ; he owes me $50, and he shall pay it; and look 
here, wife, since you’ve done so well I’ve half a mind to 
stop smoking and save the money to build you a green¬ 
house! ” 
He did not wait for her reply, but passed quickly out 
of the door in search of his delinquent debtor; but the 
sound that fell upon his ears was a prolonged and de¬ 
lighted oh! and a sigh of satisfaction from his happy 
out-door florist. Annie L. Jack. 
