you mean?" he asked.

"My dear boy, I have a few wilted petals and I know how they feel. You
see, I was like you are. There was no one to guard me and I did just
what any girl will do who does not think. But I realized in time to save
myself from only a few brown ones, and I want to save every girl I can.
We were young and thought we knew our hearts. My, how they changed! But
they couldn't change those bruised petals."

He gave a hurt cry, but he saw a face free from suffering. It held only
love for him.

"Floyd, I want to give the world a noble man. That is the dearest wish
of every woman. I want to give some woman a pure husband; and oh, my
darling boy, I want to give you life in its best and purest forms. I put
the first little garment on your little body; I changed you from a
little angel to a human being, and I must care for that human being."

"You angel!" he murmured.

She lifted his chin and looked into his clear eyes.

"I promise," he said in a low tone.

"It will not be easy, dear. You will have to refuse to listen to other
boys, you will have to read only good books and you will have to think
pure thoughts. Rose's little book will help you. You can see the baby
that I am trying to keep pure and help me do it; you can see those doll
shoes and remember how you suffered on the night you wanted to be happy,
because you wanted to do as 'the fellows' did. You were so anxious to
know what was in the heart of the rose book. I do not know, but she did
tell me this. On the second petal--and you must look at it every day--is
the little picture of Sir Galahad which your first teacher gave you. Do
you remember it?"

The boy smiled dreamily as he quoted--

"My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure."

_Printed in the United States of America_

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