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giving my pets a bath to-day, and he can explain many things better than I can." Webb certainly did not appear averse to the arrangement, and all three were soon busy in the flower-room. "You see," resumed Mrs. Clifford, "I use the oldfashioned yellow pots. I long ago gave up all the glazed, ornamental affairs with which novices are tempted, learning from experience that they are a delusion and a snare. Webb has since made it clear to me that the roots need a circulation of air and a free exhalation of moisture as truly as the leaves, and that since glazed pots do not permit this, they should never be employed. After all, there is nothing neater than these common yellow porous pots. I always select the yellowest ones, for they are the most porous. Those that are red are hard-baked, and are almost as bad as the glazed abominations, which once cost me some of my choice favorites."

"I agree with you. The glazed pots are too artificial to be associated with flowers. They suggest veneer, and I don't like veneer," Amy replied. Then she asked Webb: "Are you ready for a fire of questions? Any one with your ability should be able to talk and work at the same time."

"Yes; and I did not require that little diplomatic pat on the back."

"I'll be as direct and severe as an inquisitor, then. Why do you syringe and wash the foliage of the plants? Why will not simple watering of the earth in the pots answer?"

"We wash the foliage in order that the plants may breathe and digest their food." "How lucid!" said Amy, with laughing irony. "Then," she added, "please take nothing for granted except my ignorance in these matters. I don't know anything about plants except in the most general way."

lated. These little pores introduce the vital atmosphere through the air-passages of the plant, which correspond in a certain sense to the throat and lungs of an animal. You would be sadly off if you couldn't breathe; these plants would fare no better. Therefore we must do artificially what the rain does out-of-doorswash away the accumulated dust, so that respiration may be unimpeded. over, these little pores, which are shaped like the semi-elliptical springs of a carriage, are self-acting valves. A plant exhales a great deal of moisture in invisible vapor. A sunflower has been known to give off three pounds of water in twenty-four hours. This does no harm, unless the moisture escapes faster than it rises from the roots, in which case the plant wilts, and may even die. In such emergencies these little stomata, or mouths, shut up partly or completely, and so do much to check the exhalation. When moisture is given to the roots, these mouths open again, and if our eyes were fine enough we should see the vapor passing out."

"I never appreciated the fact before that plants are so thoroughly alive."

"Indeed they are alive, and therefore they need the intelligent care required by all living creatures which we have removed from their natural conditions. Nature takes care of all her children when they are where she placed them. In a case like this, wherein we are preserving plants that need summer warmth through a winter's cold, we must learn to supply her place, and as far as possible adopt her methods. It is just because multitudes do not understand her ways that so many house plants are in a halfdying condition."

"Now, Amy, I will teach you how to water the pots," Mrs. Clifford began. "The water, you see, has been standing in the flower-room all night, so as to raise "Give me time, and I think I can make its temperature. That drawn directly from some things clear. A plant breathes as the well would be much too cold, and even truly as you do, only unlike yourself as it is I shall add some warm water to it has indefinite thousands of mouths. take the chill off. The roots are very There is one leaf on which there are over sensitive to a sudden chill from too cold one hundred and fifty thousand. They water. No, don't pour it into the pots are called stomata, or breathing pores, from that pitcher. The rain does not fall and are on both sides of the leaf in most so, and, as Webb says, we must imitate plants, but usually are in far greater nature. This watering-pot with a fine rose abundance on the lower side. The plant will enable you to sprinkle them slowly, draws its food from the air and soil-from and the soil can absorb the moisture natuthe latter in liquid form-and this sub- rally and equally. Most plants need water stance must be concentrated and assimi- | much as we take our food, regularly, often,

and not too much at a time. Let this surface soil in the pots be your guide. It should never be perfectly dry, and still less should it be sodden with moisture; nor should moisture ever stand in the saucers under the pots, unless the plants are semiaquatic, like this calla-lily. You will gradually learn to treat each plant or family of plants according to its nature. The amount of water which that calla requires would kill this heath, and the quantity needed by the heath would be the death of that cactus over there."

"Oh dear!" cried Amy, "if I were left alone in the care of your flower-room, I should out-Herod Herod in the slaughter of the innocents."

"You will not be left alone, and you will be surprised to find how quickly the pretty mystery of life and growth will begin to reveal itself to you."

As the days passed, Amy became more and more absorbed in the genial family life of the Cliffords. She especially attached herself to the old people, and Mr. and Mrs. Clifford were fast learning that their kindness to the orphan was destined to receive an exceeding rich reward. Her young eyes supplemented theirs, which were fast growing dim; and even platitudes read in her sweet girlish voice seemed to acquire point and interest. She soon learned to glean from the papers and periodicals that which each cared for, and to skip the rest. She discovered in the library a well-written book on travel in the tropics, and soon had them absorbed in its pages, the descriptions being much enhanced in interest by contrast with the winter landscape without. Mrs. Clifford had several volumes on the culture of flowers, and under her guidance and that of Webb she began to prepare for the practical out-of-door work of spring with great zest. In the mean time she was assiduous in the care of the house plants, and read all she could find in regard to the species and varieties represented in the little flower-room. It became a source of genuine amusement to start with a familiar house plant and trace out all its botanical relatives, with their exceedingly varied character and yet essential consanguinity; and she drew others, even Alf and little Johnnie, into this unhackneyed pursuit of knowledge.

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man family. Group them together and you can see plainly that they belong to each other, and yet they differ so widely." "As widely as Webb and I," put in Burtis.

"Thanks for so apt an illustration.” "Burt is what you would call a rampant grower, running more to wood and foliage than anything else," Leonard remarked.

"I didn't say that," said Amy. "Moreover, I learn from my reading that many of the strong-growing plants become in maturity the most productive of flowers or fruit."

"How young I must seem to you!" Burt remarked.

"Well, don't be discouraged. It's a fault that will mend every day," she replied, with a smile that was so arch and genial that he mentally assured himself that he never would be disheartened in his growing purpose to make Amy more than a sister.

One winter noon Leonard returned from his superintendence of the wood-cutting in the mountains. At the dinner table he remarked: "I have heard to-day that the Lumley family are in great destitution, as usual. It is useless to help them, and yet one can not sit down to a dinner like this in comfort while even the Lumleys are hungry."

"Hunger is their one good trait," said Webb. "Under its incentive they contribute the smallest amount possible to the world's work."

"I shouldn't mind," resumed Leonard, "if Lumley and his wife were pinched sharply. Indeed, it would give me solid satisfaction had I the power to make those people work steadily for a year, although they would regard it as the worst species of cruelty. They have a child, however, I am told, and for its sake I must go and see after them. Come with me, Amy, and I promise that you will be quite contented when you return home."

It was rather late in the afternoon before the busy Leonard appeared at the door in his strong one-horse sleigh with its movable seat, and Amy found that he had provided an ample store of vegetables, flour, etc. She started upon the expedition with genuine zest, to which every mile of progress added.

The clouded sky permitted only a cold gray light, in which everything stood out with wonderful distinctness. Even the

dried weeds with their shrivelled seed- The wretched smoky fire they maintainvessels were sharply defined against the ed was the final triumph and revelation snow. The beech leaves which still clung of their utter shiftlessness. With square to the trees were bleached and white, but miles of woodland all about them, they the foliage on the lower branches of the had prepared no billets of suitable size. oaks was almost black against the hill-side. The man had merely cut down two Not a breath of air rustled them. At small trees, lopped off their branches, times Leonard would stop his horse, and and dragged them into the room. Their when the jingle of the sleigh-bells ceased butt ends were placed together on the the silence was profound. Every vestige hearth, whence the logs stretched like of life had disappeared in the still woods, the legs of a compass to the two farther or was hidden by the snow. corners of the room. Amy, in the uncer

"How lonely and dreary it all looks!" tain light, had nearly stumbled over one said Amy, with a sigh.

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"That is why I like to look at a scene like this," Leonard replied. When I get home I see it all again-all its cold desolation-and it makes Maggie's room, with her and the children around me, seem like heaven."

But oh, the contrast to Maggie's room that Amy looked upon after a ride over a wood-road so rough that even the deep snow could not relieve its rugged inequalities! A dim glow of fire-light shone through the frosted window-panes of a miserable dwelling, as they emerged in the twilight from the narrow track in the growing timber. In response to a rap on the door, a gruff, thick voice said, "Come in."

Leonard, with a heavy basket on his arm, entered, followed closely by Amy, who, in her surprise, looked with undisguised wonder at the scene before her. Never had she even imagined such a home. Indeed, it seemed like profanation of the word to call the bare, uncleanly room by that sweetest of English words. It contained not a home-like feature.

Her eyes were not resting on decent poverty, but upon uncouth, repulsive want; and this awful impoverishment was not seen in the few articles of cheap, dilapidated furniture so clearly as in the dull, sodden faces of the man and woman who kennelled there. No trace of manhood or womanhood was visible—and no animal is so repulsive as a man or woman imbruted.

The man rose unsteadily to his feet and said: "Evening, Mr. Clifford. Will yer

take a cheer?"

The woman had not the grace or the power to acknowledge their presence, but after staring stolidly for a moment or two at her visitors through her dishevelled hair, turned and cowered over the hearth again, her elfish locks falling forward and hiding her face.

of them. As the logs burned away they were shoved together on the hearth from time to time, the woman mechanically throwing on dry sticks from a pile near her when the green wood ceased to blaze. Both the man and woman were partially intoxicated, and the latter was so stupefied as to be indifferent to the presence of strangers. While Leonard was seeking to obtain from the man some intelligible account of their condition, and bringing in his gifts, Amy gazed around, with her fair young face full of horror and disgust. Then her attention was arrested by a feeble cry from a cradle in a dusky corner beyond the woman, and to the girl's heart it was indeed a cry of distress, all the more pathetic because of the child's helplessness, and unconsciousness of the wretched life to which it seemed inevitably destined.

She stepped to the cradle's side, and saw a pallid little creature, puny and feeble from neglect. Its mother paid no attention to its wailing, and when Amy asked if she might take it up, the woman's mumbled reply was unintelligible.

After hesitating a moment Amy lifted the child, and found it scarcely more than a little skeleton. Sitting down on the only chair in the room, which the man had vacated-the woman crouched on an inverted box-Amy said, "Leonard, please bring me the milk we brought."

A cup was brought, and the child drank with avidity. Leonard stood in the background and sadly shook his head as he watched the scene, the fire-light flickering on Amy's pure profile and tear-dimmed eye as she watched the starved babe taking from her hand the food that the brutish mother on the opposite side of the hearth was incapable of giving it.

He never forgot that picture-the girl's face beautiful with a divine compassion, the mother's large sensual features half hidden by her snaky locks as she leaned

stupidly over the fire, the dusky flicker- | shall come and see the baby again. Oh,

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"Well the woman, she's drunk, and man, more touched than ever. "Never s'pose I be too, somewhat."

"Come, Lumley, be more civil,” said Leonard. "The young lady isn't used to such talk."

"Oh, it all seems so dreadful!" ed Amy, her tears falling faster.

had any sich wisitors afore."

When Amy had tucked the child in warmly he followed her and Leonard to the sleigh, and said, "Good-by, miss; I'm exclaim-a-going to work like a man, and there's my hand on it agin."

The man drew a step or two nearer, and looked at her wondering, then, stretching out his great grimy hand, he said: "I s'pose you think I hain't no feelings, miss; but I have. I'll take keer on the young 'un, and I won't tech another drop to-night. Thar's my hand on it."

To Leonard's surprise, Amy took the hand, as she said, "I believe you will keep your word."

Going to work was Lumley's loftiest idea of reformation, and many others would find it a very good beginning. As they drove away they heard the ring of his axe, and it had a hopeful sound.

For a time Leonard was closely occupied with the intricacies of the road, and when at last he turned and looked at Amy, she was crying.

"There, don't take it so to heart," he said, soothingly.

"Oh, Leonard, I never saw anything like it before. That poor little baby's smile went right to my heart. And to think of its awful mother!"

"That's right, Lumley," added Leonard, heartily. "Now you are acting like a man. I've brought you a fair lot of things, but they are in trade. In exchange for them I want the jug of liquor you brought up from the village to-day." They paused on an eminence and lookThe man hesitated, and looked at his ed back on the dim outline of the hovel. wife.

"Come, Lumley, you've begun well. Put temptation out of the way. For your wife and baby's sake, as well as your own, give me the jug. You mean well, but you know your failing."

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Then Leonard drew her close to him as he said, "Don't cry any more. You have acted like a true little woman-just as Maggie would have done-and good may come of it, although they'll always be Lumleys. As Webb says, it would require several go-generations to bring them up. Haven't I given you a good lesson in contentment?"

Well, Mr. Clifford," said the man, ing to a cupboard, "I guess it 'll be safer. But you don't want the darned stuff," and he opened the door and dashed the vessel against an adjacent bowlder.

"That's better still. Now brace up, get your axe and cut some wood in a civilized way. We're going to have a cold night. You can't keep up a fire with this shiftless contrivance," indicating one of the logs lying along the floor with his foot. As soon as you get things straightened up here a little we'll give you work. The young lady has found out that you have the making of a man in you yet. If she'll take your word for your conduct tonight, she also will for the future."

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Yes," added Amy, "if you will try to do better, we will all try to help you. I

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