Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1909-10-29
THE ARTIFICIAL
FLOWER X

By HELEN SOPHIE cAsHE.


Petersburg stands a little shop In
whose windows are samples of artid-
cial flowers. It is kept actually by
Ivan ~Ivanovitch, though it really ex-
lists by virtue of his daughter Katia.
Katia not only makes the flowers. but
does the selling. When a customer en-
tiers, the old man, who is usually sit
ting in the front of the shop reading
a newspaper, rises. bustles forward,
asks what is wanted. goes behind the
tiny counter and opens the cases, all
the while appearing to be full of bust
ness. But 1t is not long before he
calls. "Katia, have we any tulipsY'
"Katia, how much are these roses? '
"Katia, what became of those crysan-
themums? ?" Then Katia goes and
takes charge of the customer.
One day a coach stopped before the
shop, a footman respondent in purple
and gold, with white silk stockings,
opened the coach door, and a lady
alighted and came into the shop. The
old man met her; but, without reply
ing to his question as to how he could
serve her, she said:
81 am told by one who has bought
artificial flowers here that you have a
daughter who makes them"
Katia came forward.
so you are the GIRL" said the lady,
''of whom my friend, Nine. Voronka,
has spoken of TO me so f~eelingly. She
has not o~verpraised your eyes nor the
kindness of your expression. 1t does
not indicate one born to do great
deeds; rather one born to love ones
fellow beings. Nine. Voronka tells
me, too, that your flowers are as lovely
as yourself"
Katia, wreathed in smiles at such a
delicious happening, brought forth her
wares, and the lady bought a plentiful
supply. "In take this, n these, and
those, and that one over there" she
said, until she had purchased nearly
an armful. "Send them, or, rather,
bring them to me tomorrow at 5 in the
evening"
"Oh, father" exclaimed Katia as the
door closed behind the lady. II feel
as If an angel had come down from
heaven to visit me-"
"What name did she give your"
Countess Bokianoff."
A singular expression came yer the
old mans face, but he said nothing to
his daughter.
The next afternoon Katia took the
flowers to the lady. She did not re-
turn till nearly Z o'clock and when she
did was full Of enthusiasm about her
patron. ooh, father" she exclaimed,
"whom do you suppose she is? No
less a person than the wife of the min
lister of the interior! And the order
she gave T3etG. carry her 10
ruDles' ss every
week.
The first of these statements the
man receis ec. without surprise; the Sec
ond arrested his attention.
One day when Katia was making UP
her flowers to take t. her patron her
father said:
"Katia, the lady has been so good to
us that we should show our apprecia-
ton. l have been thinking how we
can best do so and have concluded
there can be no better way than fol
you to make a special bouquet of your
flowers and present them to her hus
band, the minister"
"Oh, father, would not that be de-
lightfulT'
Katia set to work at once to make
a specially beautiful bouquet of flow
ers and had them all ready to take to
the minister three days before she was
to fill the next order for the countess
She put them up in n of the cases
where they would not be injured and
told her father on no account to touch
them. When the day arrived to de-
liver them, as she was going out her
father charged her to deliver those for
the countess, then, without waiting, to
take those for the minister to his Of
fee and to carry them very carefully
since being Of wax they would be
easily injured. Katia promised TO do
all this. Her father folded her in his
arms, kissed her notwithstanding
unusual with him-and she sailed
forth.
As she walked with a bouquet under
each arm she thought she perceived
an odor something like burning paper,
but she was so intent on the surprise
she was about to give her whom she
called her angel that it did not make
much impression on her. Arrived at
her destination, she laid aside the flow
ers for the countess, and with spar
king eyes and glowing cheeks she held
forth her and her fathers gift for the
minister. Then she was about to hur-
ry away to deliver the latter, accord
ing to her promise, when again her at
tention was arrested by that peculiar
odor. Fearing a house might have
crawled in among the flowers and died
there, she unbound them.
In the center was a small glass
globe. Inserted In 1t vas a fuse, one
end Of which emitted a scarcely per-