heart, and I'll always know that Uncle Jim he brought them to me over the sea!" Some one murmured, "Things ought to be awful pretty to be remembered always!" and the general consent seemed to settle without dispute that a basket of flowers would be the very sweetest thing in the world to give. "And I know of a man who keeps a hot-house just out of town," said the young President, "and he looks good-humored and kind, so maybe he'll give us something real nice for what we'll have to pay!" And soon after the meeting dispersed. The day before Christmas, as the big, burly, and rosy owner of the conservatory just out of town was sorting his choicest blooms for a large wedding which was to take place in the evening, the door of the hot-house suddenly opened, and a squadron of a dozen or more small girls entered in solemn procession. "Bless my soul!" said the Gentle Giant, turning his bluff, bright face toward them, "what do you young ones want?" For an instant they had stood quite still, looking about them in wonder and delight; for the whole place was so filled with rare and lovely blossoms that its atmosphere, color, and profusion was like a concentration of the tropics. "If you please, sir, we want to buy a basket of flowers." The man dropped the two or three buds he held in his hand, turned entirely around, and gave one steady look down the whole line; he saw at once that they were not likely to want flowers for themselves, and imagined that one or two had been sent on a message, and that the rest had accompanied these. "You-want-to-buy-” he said slowly. "Yes, sir, a basket of flowers, if you please." Well, sir, I'll tell you. You see, sir, there's a dear kind lady, and she is a cripple, and never gets off a low kind of bed she lays on, and works all the time the most beautiful 'broidering flowers you ever seen. And she teaches us; so we thought we'd like to give her a Christmas present, and we've all saved up till we think we've got enough; and because she never can go out to see anything a-growing, and just loves flowers like they were alive, we made up our minds to take her some; because we all gave something toward it we all came together about it; and if you please, sir, we'd like as nice a basketful as you can make up for our money." The rosy face bloomed out bright as one of his own blossoms; the round eyes grew wonderfully soft and moist, as the big burly man stooped and kissed the small speaker, and said, with just a touch of huskiness in his voice: "Well, you're a blessed little party! You just go round, all of you, and pick out what you'd like to have, and I'll fix them up for you!" There was an immediate stir in the young procession, and evident delight in this permission, and an intention to put it instantly into practice, when the Little Leader called out, "You keep still there, will you? I've got something else to say!" Curiosity restored order, and she again addressed the gardener. "Ain't those grand flowers very dear? You see, sir, we don't want anything we can't pay for all right. We've got this much money; please to count it, sir, and see if it will do!" And she handed him a rather battered tin match-box containing the accumulated contributions in small coins, which had been gradually brought in as they were gained. The big gardener by this time was too much touched to keep quite calm. "Here," he said to the Little Leader, "you count out this money, and tell me how much it is, and I'll do the best I can for it!" And when he took a basket and went round his hot-house collecting here and there his simplest blooms, all these keen eyes watched him in unbroken silence, and not one of them stirred a gaze from his fingers as he laid in the moss, propped a superb, stainless lily in the centre, and arranged round it with exquisite taste violets and heart's-ease, and delicate, pure blossoms; in breathless quiet they noted every flower that was woven into its place, little thinking that these commoner plants which they were used to see in summer were almost as costly as foreign growths in winter; and it was not till the whole was finished that they broke out into exclamations of satisfaction. "This must be a mighty good woman to make you love her so," said the man as he handed over the basket to the careful hold of the Little Leader. "Good!" answered Nettie Blane, "she's a-most an angel; it seems like she ought never to do anything but stand up close to the throne with just such lilies in her hand," for Nettie's inmost heart was stirred by the flowers and the occasion. The big gardener looked at her a second as if he thought she might have been a stray cherub herself. "That's all your own gift," he said, pointing to the lily-crowned basket; "but would you mind taking her a little present from me too? It shall only be one flower," he said; and as a single flower in their inexperienced eyes could not possibly compare with a basketful, a happy assent was immediately given. He went round among his plants to where bloomed one magnificent blossom, the only one of its kind in the greenhouse. He broke it from the stalk, and placed it in Nettie Blane's hand. "Oh, thank you!" said Nettie's glad voice, "I will give it to her with your compliments." And then the big gardener kissed every one of them as they passed out, and stood at his hot-house door, and watched the little procession as it wound out of sight with the Little Leader at the head, carrying the basket of flowers. The Crippled Sister was lying on her low couch, when her chamber door opened and the procession of children entered bearing their precious burden. Then the rich color flooded the Crippled Sister's cheek and brow, and her eyes shone, and she seemed to grow transfigured before their very sight into angelic youth and beauty, and her voice was almost like a song as she cried out, “O my darlings! you have made me so rich to-day." And she kissed them all, over and over, and when they lingered as though loath to leave her, her spirit seemed inspired to speak to them from the text of the flowers; through the big gardener's rare blossom she seemed to bring before them the wonders, the glories, the very atmosphere of the East; they saw the palms of India and the gardens of Damascus, the roses of Persia, and the cedars of Lebanon; and out of the simple blooms of their own sweet gift, she wove tender stories and lessons that would cling in their memories to heart's-ease and violets as long as they lived. And somehow, as she talked, these poor, little, narrow lives felt themselves grow nearer to the angels; and when, after they had all joined together in singing for her the Christmas hymn, they went out to their humble homes with their hearts upraised in "Glory to God on high," because they felt, in their vague way, that in that one room at least there was "peace on earth and good-will toward men." AFTER THE THEATRE. Ten dollars. Quite a sum to pay With that swell dress-the shade écru The curtain rose. How time will pass The curtain fell. Once more we stood Used up that other four. Time sped. The cash I had four hours ago Is gone. I've naught for it to show. BIG BEN BOLTON.-EUGENE J. HALL. I remember big Ben Bolton and the little Leontine, He could carry off a millstone, but she ruled him like a queen. He stood seven feet in his stockings; she was hardly three feet high; But she wound him round her finger, and she ruled him with her eye. The women used to snicker, and the hardy miners smiled, That they looked as fitly mated as a rabbit and a bear. He would drop his pick and shovel when she came in working hours; They would go among the gulches after gay and gaudy flow ers; He would climb the dizzy ledges, he would scale the mount ain side, Bearing her upon his shoulders, while he called her "little bride." He could bend an iron crowbar, he could lift a half a ton, |