Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1873-06-25
THE PANSY BOXES.
BY MARY L. BOLLES BRANCH.


On broad w1ndowseat, where the sun
shine lay all the forenoon, were two SQUARE
wooden boxes, full Of rich black earth and
near by were two little girls talking al bout
the beautiful flowers they expected to
have. Both the boxes would have belong
ed to Hetty, the little girl in the blue frock
and white ruffied pinafore, if her cousin
Bessie had not come. Bessie was an or
phan, who had been living with her grand
mother in the country, but now she had
come to Hettys home to live, and they
were to be like sisters
Hetty had never had any one to divide
her things with before, and she felt a
novel, pleasant importance in setting
apart half her book shelves, half of her
closet room, and half of her bureau draw
ers to Bessie; while Bessie, for her part
skipped about like kitten, arranging
over and over her few possessions, as CON
tented as if they had been kingdom
And now, mamma said Hetty, "may
| give Bessie one of my pansy boxes?"
8 Certainly" said mamma, and away the
girls ran to the sitting-room window to
talk the subject over The boxes were all
ready, but the seeds had not vet ti been en-
planted, and Hetty held the little seed
paper in her hand. 1t had cost all her
tortnights allowance, but that was moth
ing, for the pansies were going to be of
all colors and kinds. 1t was the ONLY
garden Hetty could have, for there was no
room out of doors in the little paved
court
'"Therell be all colors," said Hettv, as
she poured out the seeds in order to divide
them. "There'll be purple and golden,
and white, and spotted and black, and
velvety crimson, and the very loveliest
sky -blue''-and there she stopped sudden
ly, and looked rather gravely at the little
bright seeds.
Il never saw so many colors, but I've
seen violet" said Bessie, delightedly.
Hetty did not answer She was think
ing how very, very much she wanted sky
blue pansies; she had set her heart upon
them more than upon all the rest, and now
she could not tell the seeds apart, and
suppose all the sky-blue ones should hap
pen to get into Bessie's half! Wouldn't
that be too bad? A wish crossed her mind
that she had not shared her boxes. She
might have kept just one thing to herself
cpl put mine in this piece of soft
paper" said Bessie, watching the seeds
with eager brown eyes, and thinking how
slow Hetty was.
Hetty was ashamed to mention the
thought that was in her mind, so she went
on slowly, and hesitatingly divided the
seeds. If she could only tell which were
the sky blue ones! Some of the seeds
were darker than others, and it seemed to
her that the sky blue ones would be more
likely to have light seeds, and she tried
to manage it SO that most of the light
seeds would fall to her share. Bessie was
not at all critical, and took what was
given her with great glee.
"Now I'm going to plant them!" she
exclaimed, running to her box.
Mamma told me how" said Hetty:
''you press the seeds down ever so gently
a little way in the soft earth, and then
push just a little over them. I'm going
to plant mine in circles'
'Then I'll plant mine like wheel, with
spokes," said Bessie, and both began dill
gently tracing out lines in the black earth,
and laying the little seeds afectionately
away.
''Now we'd better, each of us, Law a
newspaper over the top" said Hetty, when
they had finished planting. Mamma saws
pansy seeds jump sometimes"
"Jump" exclaimed Bessie.
eyes, when they're growing, and get
out of their places, and we don't want
them to, you know"
NO indeed!" said Bessie, "my pretti-
est ones might jump over into your box,
and then what should I do?"
"I'm sure | don't know what makes you
say that!' said Hetty. little tartly.
''Why, I was only thinking how funny
they'd lookp said her cousin, laugh
ing.
The planting over, the care-taking COM
menced. The little gardeners lowered
about their boxes day after day, moving
them in and out of the sunshine, sprink-
ling the earth with tepid water, and re-
covering every little seed that peeped out
when thought not to. At last the tiny
green leaves appeared, and every one was
carefully counted, til all were up. The
little plants grew rapidly and finely in the
rich earth, and then the girls began to
watch eagerly for the sight of bud.
81 hope mine'll be pretty colors," said
Bessie looking fondly at her box.
They are all pretty colors," said Hetty,
who felt little disturbed whenever Bessie
made such a remark, and then she thought
that if she should have all the sky-blue
ones, she would let Hetty pick flower
once in while, maybe.
1t seemed very long time to wait be-
fore the buds came, but after the first two
or three, others followed thick and fast.
The excitement deepened. Hetty even
opened one or two buds with pin to see
what color they were inside. But they be-
gan to unclo &c themselves in a few DAYS,
and every new blossom that peeped out
ever so little was hailed with rapture.
"a purple one! Three purple ones!"
ID T
next is going to be spottedn'
~ have two white ones almost out"
said Hetty, anxiously, with little purple