give me a f'ower." Also that something in the baby voice had so far
moved Mrs. Jemima Crook, that she had stooped to select one or two of
the least faded roses among all those just snipped from the bushes,
and given them to the daring little blue eyes outside, with this
injunction, however:

"Mind you never come here asking for flowers any more."

This report was long current among the inhabitants of a city court,
but it needs confirmation.

Mrs. Crook objected to borrowers also, and perhaps she was not so much
to be blamed for that. Most of us who possess bookshelves, and once
delighted in seeing them well filled, look sorrowfully at gaps made by
borrowers who have failed to return our treasures. But domestic
emergencies occur even in the best regulated families, and neighborly
help may be imperatively required. It may be a matter of Christian
duty and privilege too, to lend both our goods and our personal aid.
Mrs. Crook did not think so. Lending formed no part of her creed. If
other people believed in it, and liked their household goods to travel
up and down the neighborhood, that was their look-out, not hers.

"I never borrow, so why should I lend?" asked Mrs. Crook. "Besides, I
am particular about my things. My pans are kept as bright and clean as
new ones, and if my servant put them on the shelves, as some people's
servants replace theirs after using, she would not be here long. No,
thank you. When I begin to borrow, I will begin to lend, but not until
then."

Mrs. Crook's sentiments were so well known that, even in a case of
sickness, when a few spoonfuls of mustard were needed for immediate
use in poultices, the messenger on the way to borrow it, passed her
door rather than risk a refusal, whereby more time might be lost than
by going farther in the first instance.

Many were the invitations Mrs. Crook received to take part in the work
of different societies. One lady asked her to join the Dorcas meeting.

"You can sew so beautifully," she said. "You would be a great
acquisition to our little gathering."

The compliment touched a tender point. Mrs. Crook was proud of her
needlework, but to dedicate such skill in sewing to making
under-clothing for the poorest of the poor: The idea was monstrous!

Mrs. Crook answered civilly, that she could not undertake to go
backwards and forwards to a room half a mile off. It would be a waste
of time. Besides, though it was probably not the case in that
particular