l have a show of flowers. Your hyacinths will do a
great deal better up there."

"Will they?" said Matilda. "They are doing very nicely here; and they
look nicely."

"Now we can do all we've a mind to, Pink. I'll have some amaryllis
roots right off; and japonicas, _japonicas_, Pink; and everything you
like. Geraniums, and Bovardias, and Azaleas, and Cacti; and Cyclamens;
and Cassia and Arbutillon. Fuchsias too, and what you like!"

"Why that little room will not hold everything," said Matilda. "Can't
you have some roses?"

"Roses? O yes, and carnations; everything you like. Yes, it will hold
everything. Lots of tulips, too."

"How about the money?" David asked.

"It don't take a fortune to stock a little greenhouse."

"You haven't got a fortune."

"I have got enough."

"Have anything left for other objects?"

"What objects?" said Norton. "I haven't but one object at present.
One's enough."

"But Matilda has an object too," David said smiling enough to show his
white teeth; "and her object will want some help, I'm thinking."

"What object?" said Norton.

"Don't you remember? I told you, Norton, about Sarah"--

"O _that!_" said Norton with a perceptible fall of his mental
thermometer. "That's all your visions, Pink; impracticable; fancy. The
idea of you, with your little purse, going into the mud of New York,
and thinking to dean the streets."

"Certainly," said David, "and so she wauls a little help from our
purses, don't you see?"

"David Bartholomew!" Norton burst out, "you know as well as I do, that
it is no sort of use to try that game. Just go look at the mud; it will
take all we could throw into it, and never shew."

"No," said David; "we could clear up a little corner, I think, if we
tried."

"_You!_" cried Norton. "Are _you_ at that game? _You_ turned soft
suddenly?"

"Do no harm, that I see," replied David composedly.

"These people aren't your people," said Norton.

"They are your people," said David.

"They are not! I have nothing to do with them, and it is no use--Davie
Bartholomew, you _know_ it's no use--to try to help them. Pink is so
tender-hearted, she wants to help the whole world; and it's all very
well for her to want it; but she can't; and I can't; and you can't."

"But we can help Sarah Staples," Matilda ventured.

"And then you may go on to help somebody else, and then somebody else;
and there's no end to it; only there's this end, that you'll always be
poor yoursel