I 
TIIE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
“ As soon as the choir stops giggling and whispering 
I will preach the sermon,” resumed Benjie. “Most 
ministers don’t wait for that, but I think they ought to. 
The audience is asked to keep awake; if any one sleeps 
•out loud, the sexton will please wake ’em up. My text 
is about Adam and Eve. Adam was the first man, and 
he was made of dirt; but Eve was made of one of Adams 
bones. She couldn’t have been very good-looking with¬ 
out any flesh. I’m glad my mother isn’t made of bones. 
The world was new and clean then, and Adam and his 
wife lived in a beautiful garden where there were all 
kinds of animals; there were lions that didn’t roar and 
scare folks, and tigers that never ate folks up, and dogs 
that didn’t bite, and cats that didn’t scratch, and there 
were lots of (lowers that never wilted or dried up, and 
lots of fruit, and it was never wormy, or rotten, or sour; 
and they coidd eat all they wanted without having the 
stomach-ache. But there was one tree in the middle of 
the garden that God told them not to touch, but they 
didn’t mind Him, for a great hateful serpent made Eve 
eat an apple from that tree, and she liked it so well that 
she teased Adam to eat some too, and then God drove 
them out of the beautiful garden into the wilderness and 
made them work for their - living ; and then the lions 
began to roar, and tigers began to eat folks up, and dogs 
began to bite, and cats began to scratch, and roses had 
thorns to hurt folks, and flowers wilted, and apples and 
pears got wormy and rotten, and grapes got sour, and 
watermelon got to giving folks colic, and everything 
went wrong. And that’s the way it will be with you 
brethren, if you eat things that you’ve been told not too. 
Meeting’s done now.” 
Then there was a rush and stampede as of a rather 
disorderly audience passing out. 
Mrs. Green on the stairs was convulsed with silent 
laughter. It is safe to say that she had enjoyed the 
play as well as the children had. 
“Now let’s play school,” said Daisy, “I will be 
teacher, and we will have a school where scholars null 
have real good times.” 
“ I want to be teacher,” said another voice. 
“ Now, Lizzie, that isn’t kind,” answered Daisy; 
■“ you may be teacher next time, If you want too.” 
“That must be Lizzie Fowler,” thought Mrs. Green, 
“as nearly as I can judge there arc five children up 
there besides Daisy.” 
“ I don’t want to play school; I’d rather play tag,” 
said another voice. 
“ Now, Belle, I am ashamed of you,” said Daisy ; 
“tag is such a rude play, and school is more culti¬ 
vating 1 ” 
“The scholars may all take their seats,” continued 
Daisy who had never yet seen the inside of a school¬ 
room. “I want you all to read about things that you 
know about. Jimmie, you may begin; you may read 
about cats.” 
A boyish voice read as follows: 
“ A cat sits on the fence and looks about her. Gats 
like to be on the fence as well as boys do. When cats 
get mad the hair stands up on their backs. Cats are 
smarter than boys, for they can climb trees without 
tearing their clothes.” 
“Benjie may read about horses because his father- 
keeps so many of them,” said this very original teacher. 
And Benjie’s voice read: 
“ Horses have four legs and run twice as fast as boys, 
55 
who have only two legs. Sometimes they run away 
and spill folks out and lull them, but nobody blames 
the horse; if boys killed folks they would be hung.” 
“ Lizzie you may read about dolls,” said Daisy. 
“ Dolls are little folks that are made for children to 
play with. Some are made of wax, and some of china 
and other things, and they are all bignesses, but their 
inside is most always sawdust, and if they get broke the 
sawdust will run out of them, and leave them all holler 
inside.” 
“Belle may read about—about—coal,” said Daisy, 
whose list of subjects seemed nearly exhausted. 
“Coal is dirty, black stuff, that people build fires 
with. Mamma says it is dug out of the ground; but I 
digged and digged one day, and made a dreadful deep 
hole, but there wasn’t any coal there.” 
“ Now you may all have some lunch,” said the teacher, 
“ and visit with each other while you eat it. You can 
have mince pie and fruit cake, and eat as much as you 
please, for such things don’t hurt children in this kind 
of school.” 
“Teacher!” cried Maggie, “ Jimmie snatched part of 
my cake, and won’t give it back ; he is just as mean as 
he can be—sassy thing ! ” 
“Teacher !” said Belle, “ Lizzie Fowler is making up 
faces at me and pinching me, and I wish she wouldn’t 
go to school here any more—plague take her ! ” 
“Oh dear!” thought the little woman on the stairs, 
“ I can’t have Daisy play with children who talk like 
that.” 
“Teacher!” said Benjie, “the mince pie is all gone, 
and I haven’t had enough.” 
“Nevermind,” said Daisy, “it is time to look at 
pictures now. Here is a picture-book for Jimmie, and 
some Wide Awakes for Belle, and a box of chromos for 
Maggie, and some stereoscopic views for Lizzie, and 
when you have all looked at them, you can change about 
till everybody has seen them all.” 
“ It is a pity that some of our school committees could 
not sit on our attic stairs a while; they might get some 
useful ideas,” thought Mrs. Green. 
“Teacher!” called Jimmie, “what is this picture 
about?” 
“ That is the big Towel of London,” answered Daisy. 
“ Two nice little princes was smothered in it once. 
Their wicked uncle did it. It looks more like a big house 
than a towel, I think.” 
“Teacher, please tell me about this,” said Lizzie’s 
voice. 
“That,” answered the teacher, “is the Looker-on. He’s 
going to be killed by those horrid snakes, and those are 
his little boys, and the snakes will kill them, too.” 
Mrs. Green nearly betrayed her presence on the stairs 
by an audible laugh at Daisy’s new name for the 
Laocoon ! 
“ Teacher, who’s this? ” called Benjie’s voice. 
“That is George Washington,” replied Daisy. “He 
was the father of his country, and that woman beside 
him is Martha Washington, and I s’pose she was the 
mother of his country. They were very nice people, I 
expect; they look quite stylish, I think.” 
“Oh dear !” sighed Mrs. Green. 
“ The girls may have a good long recess,” announced 
Daisy. 
Then followed a rush and a scramble, and then games 
were proposed; they played tag, and then blind-man’s- 
