210 THE FLORIST. 
-and we should discard Alice Maude, Victoria, Sir Harry, Black Prince, 
Prince of Wales. : vis 
We have only seen Wizard on the card, where it looks grand ;. we 
shall see if it comes up to the mark next year. 
Fr oi 
THE SIX OF SPADES. 
CHAPTER VII. 
INDEED, I think that there are few institutions more healthful, and 
few sights more pleasant to the eye and heart, than that of a village 
flower show. It induces first of all that communion of classes which 
teaches men, more forcibly than schools or sermons can, to recognize 
their place and duty; and does this with a cheerful ease and freedom 
very sparse (please to. observe the fashionable’ adjective ‘‘ sparse,” a 
new shilling, I assure you, in the coinage of etymology) in the assem- 
blies of Englishmen. Orchids, delicately reared in heat, are gathered 
under one tent with the hardy wild flowers of the field; the luscious 
Grape from my Lord’s vinery rests upon the same table with the 
Gooseberry, hirsute and corpulent; and as the question is, not which 
of these is more beautiful or better than its neighbour, but which is 
best of its kind, which has been most carefully and wisely cultivated ; 
so when men meet together, lawmakers and brickmakers, coronets and 
** billy-cocks,” the consideration for each to take home with him is this, 
not whether he is richer in purse or higher in grade than another, 
because God has put all men in their places, but whether he is useful 
and good in himself. It concerns every man, and vitally, to reflect, 
not whether he is a duke or a ditcher, for that is pre-arranged and 
fixed, but whether his dukery or his dike are in the best available 
condition. os 
If it be said that very few will make this inference, or note my 
obscure analogy, I may lay stress at all events upon the fact that there 
is the communion of classes, pleasantly established, aud that from this 
kindly genial intercourse new sympathies cannot fail to spring. All 
are in good spirits and good temper to begin with. ‘The Duke congra- 
tulates Mr, Oldacres upon that glorious basket of forced fruits, Grapes, 
Peaches, Nectarines, Apricots, worth a hundred guineas in Coyent 
Garden Market ; and Mrs. Cooper is still more delighted with a long- 
legged dusty Geranium, which would soon put an end to the Pelar- 
goniums at Slough, by causing them to die with laughter, but which, 
nevertheless, has achieved to-day the third prize for window plants. — 
Then comes a friendly fusion of exhibitors. The owner of the soil 
has hearty words for that occupier who proves to-day that he is not 
abusing it, and whose neat garden proclaims to the landlord, every 
time he passes in his carriage, industry, happiness, and the rent 
gradually accumulating i the recesses of an old stocking, Again, I 
say, it is a goodly sight. The people of a village ought to be as one 
family, and to-day they seem to be so; and when the band of our 
Volunteer Riflemen—a good band, too, though the performer on the 
