gifts in that line."

"Make yourself easy as to that, Kate," said Florence, with a smile; "I
have no intention of calling upon your talents; I have an asylum in view
for my favorite."

"O, then you know just what I was going to say. Mrs. Marshall, I
presume, has been speaking to you; she was here yesterday, and I was
quite pathetic upon the subject, telling her the loss your favorite
would sustain, and so forth; and she said how delighted she would be to
have it in her greenhouse, it is in such a fine state now, so full of
buds. I told her I knew you would like to give it to her, you are so
fond of Mrs. Marshall, you know."

"Now, Kate, I am sorry, but I have otherwise engaged it."

"Whom can it be to? you have so few intimates here."

"O, it is only one of my odd fancies."

"But do tell me, Florence."

"Well, cousin, you know the little pale girl to whom we give sewing."

"What! little Mary Stephens? How absurd! Florence, this is just another
of your motherly, oldmaidish ways--dressing dolls for poor children,
making bonnets and knitting socks for all the little dirty babies in the
region round about. I do believe you have made more calls in those two
vile, ill-smelling alleys back of our house, than ever you have in
Chestnut Street, though you know every body is half dying to see you;
and now, to crown all, you must give this choice little bijou to a
seamstress girl, when one of your most intimate friends, in your own
class, would value it so highly. What in the world can people in their
circumstances want of flowers?"

"Just the same as I do," replied Florence, calmly. "Have you not noticed
that the little girl never comes here without looking wistfully at the
opening buds? And don't you remember, the other morning, she asked me so
prettily if I would let her mother come and see it, she was so fond of
flowers?"

"But, Florence, only think of this rare flower standing on a table with
ham, eggs, cheese, and flour, and stifled in that close little room
where Mrs. Stephens and her daughter manage to wash, iron, cook, and
nobody knows what besides."

"Well, Kate, and if I were obliged to live in one coarse room, and wash,
and iron, and cook, as you say,--if I had to spend every moment of my
time in toil, with no prospect from my window but a brick wall and dirty
lane,--such a flower as this would be untold enjoyment to me."

"Pshaw! Florence--all sentiment: poor people have no time to be
sentimental. Besid