Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1879-04-18

WISH, you can give them as many more
as they will accept;n and Amy sent
them away loaded. -'
On, II we only had conservatory -
sighed Amy then; and that night a
thought struck her, and she woke Aunt
Sophy in the dark to tell her of it.
The next day, in obedience to this
idea, Amy lett bunch of flowers inf
the postofhce to be sold, and twice a
week thereafter, finding there ALWAYS
some purchaser; and it soon became
quite the custom in the town, when
flowers were wanted, to send to Amy
| Smith.
When Sam awoke one day, it was
to the sound of, dilkting and stone-haul-
| ing, and to see deep hole under wav
at the southeast corner of the house.
On Saturday night, with eyes big and
round as the dollars themselves, he saw
Amy pay the stone-masons twenty dol
lars for her cellar. On Monday the
carpenters and GLACIERS came.
When all was done, there was little
glass room, with little glass roof,
opening from Aunt Sophy's parlor,
the greater part of the brick floor car
peted with several inches of earth,
through which ran little hot-water
pipes from an arrangement that had
been added to the furnace.
81 haven't one cent left" said Amy,
as she surveyed the completed work.
"Aunty, twas an awful risk"
"You must work the harder to make
sure, then," said aunty.
Even Sam, who had been so loud in
his disapproval at first, had to confess
that the little conservatory was thing
of beauty when he and Decatur We're
admitted to its sacred precincts.
"You see,n said Amy, 81 get all the
sun there is; and it doesn't cost .aunty
bit more for coal, because the hot
water whose steam feeds these pipes is
held against the fire-pot of the furnace
and kept hot by the heat that is doing
nothing else"
But it took all the money you had,n
said Sam. I'D rather have had We
locipede."
MAYBE you won't think so always" D."
said Amy.
Certainly it was a pretty sight, all
that store of green and blossoming
things.
Amy had taken everything given her,
given her love and care to everything,
lNSItd llVSc tllluSS uatl tue year, puSlleu
those things forward. given some sun,
some shadow.
When a lit lie bit of child, she had
been found, one cold night, with a deli.
cate tropical plant carefully basketed and
taken to bed with her that it should not
freeze; and with all her efforts, the plants
had prospered and doubled.
1t was at about this time that modest
a wort ont onnoornl ~ +l,o lo.1
paper-for it was a. large country town,
although Amy's own section of it was
a small one "Cut flowers, crosses,
wreaths, bouquets, for sale by ANY
Smith," And day by day the orders be-
gan to come in, till at last there was
hardly a single day without an order of
some sort-a box of flowers for some
bodys party, a bouquet, or handful of
orange blossoms for some bride, wreath
for some funeral, dozen boutonntereS
for the managers of ball, or fair, or
dinner, or for the girl rl-graduates of
some school.
Sometimes it was all that Amy could
do to keep up her lessons and her school
and fill her orders. OF course her prices
were low, which explained much of her
custom, and she might often enough be
seen trudging along with a parcel OF
flowers to some sick person, or to some
poor mother who had lost her baby, and
had no money to buy flowers to adorn its
long sleep.
AT New Years Amy looked over her
affairs and she found she had cleared,
above expenses, just one hundred dollars.
"Sixties!"' said Sam again. "You
don't say so! l suppose you are going to
send me to the Polytechnic"
Indeed, she'll do no such thing!n
said Aunt Sophy.
I" shouldn't go to the Polytechnic if
she would" said Sam. @And YOU
needn't be in hurry, Miss Amy, to re-
fuse before you're asked! I'm going into
business with Decatur the minute I'm
through school. He's learned book-keep-
ing, and I'm real hand at bargain;
and I'll wager we'll soon have a hundred
dollars to every one of Amy's. So! But
think you might buy a boat"
"'Twould be lovely, moonlight nights,
on the river" said Amy. but no,
can't afford it."
The next year, Amy had tripled her
receipts. She had left school, and now
gave all her time to her flowers. She
had a boy on the railway to sell her
lOOObuNDy eNld CfCll SCllb uCl DdShcbS lulO
Boston.
The bay-window was full of those
that would flourish there, as, indeed,
almost every other window was.
81 declare, auntie," said Amy, one
day, we shall have to pull down our
barns and build bigger"
$50 we shallm
but not yeti" And then the bank
kao1y Of 20 hsI;nn =.
the two heads bent over in long con-
fabulation.
Sam had left school by this; and he
also was in store-still the same Sam,
and rather apt to think that the owner
of the store kept it for his, Sans,
benefit.
Decatur had gone up some rounds on
his ladder; but his salary was yet only
three hundred year, with no prospect
of more. 1t used to make him melan-
choly enough, because he was eager
and ambitious.
AS for Amy's conservatory, he was at
home so little, and saw so little of
what went on, that he hardly regarded
it as more than play, and doubted if
she made quite enough money by it, on
the whole, to dress her, she was some
times so shabby.
One evening-it was Decatur's twen-
ty-first birthday, as it happened-S
and Decatur came in together, and both
of them looked very downcast. "Why.
what's the matter, Samp" said Aunt
Sophy, taking Sans chin on the tips of
her finger, SO as to look into his mis-
chievous eyes.
Don't p said Sam, peevishly.
"Don't!"
"Why, Sam!'
81 don't feel like it, tell you! You
wouldn't either, if you'd lost such a
chance as Decatur and I've lost!"