A Red Wallflower

was deeper than he knew; it was certainly real; while his kindly and generous temper responded promptly to every appeal that her affection and confidence made upon him. Affection and confidence ar

nate. Opposition, to him, in a thing he thought good to pursue, w

cedar and hemlock branches. It may be asked, what opposition had he hitherto found to his intercourse with the colonel's daughter? And it must

The hall, the sitting-room, the drawing-room, and even Pitt's particular, out-of-the-way work-room, all were wreathed and adorned and dressed up, each after its manner. For Pitt would not have one place a repetition of another. The bright berries of the winterberry and bittersweet were mingled with the

, 'those partridge berri

astonishment. 'I think th

t. They are beautiful, very. But y

did

they wer

they won't hurt anybody up there

I was thinking-Poison shouldn't b

face li

olemnly, 'are you going t

ort of

ssues than their neighbours? They are the stuff th

' said Esthe

h a poet. You may notice, that in nature the dwellers on t

food for them,

idge berries in that motto, and my mother would never have thought o

esides, I suppose, Pitt, by and by,

at is that? What can y

e time comes there will be nothing to hurt or destroy in all the earth; the

l not be wild? What

am

you get t

Bible. It is

you s

ed to read it to me

the place some time. Ho

Mrs. Dallas, who appeared in the

ect of the partridge

I think. They brig

say if you knew

erence. They do no hurt unles

e message of peace shall have neutralized all the h

the Church knows of any such time,' she answered, as she tu

home to tea. For getting the greens and putting them up had taken both the morning and the afternoon to

arker had brought in the tea urn, and the business of preparing tea for her father was one that Esther always liked. But, nevertheless, the place approached too nearly a picture of still life. The urn hissed and bubbled, a comfortable sound; and now and then there was a falling coal or a jet of gas flame in the fire; but I think these things perhaps mad

st, 'are you busy? May

dear. Wha

hat is C

onel lo

d. 'It is nothing, Esther; noth

ople think so mu

do not think anything of it.

ake much of it? Mrs. Dallas has her

keep away from

retty, papa! Is th

in w

bright red berries here and there; and Pitt has put them up so beautifull

y; in my

ey do it t

d so in Romish times a special Popish mass was said on that day; and from that t

born the twenty-f

ur Lord's coming into the world. The shepherds were watching their flocks by night

hey have Christma

and as all it means now is a time of feasting and jollity, the dead of winter will do as

is there? if it means only fea

rstition about it; and I object to giving a superstitious reverence to what is nothing at all. Reverence the Bible as much as you please; you c

d his toast, and was tu

hristmas in England,' Esther went on. 'The Yule

g,-'godless ways! It is a great deal better in this country, whe

doubt whatever that her father must be in the right; but it was a pity, for surely in the present case Mrs. Dallas's house had the advantage. The Christmas decorations had bee

othouse flowers. If the two had been alone, Esther would have greeted him and them with very lively demonstrations; as it was, it amused the young man to see the sparkle in her eye, and the lips half opened for a cry of joy, and the sudden flush on her cheek, and at the

colonel eyed the bouquet a moment and then turned to his book. He wa

get these?' The girl's br

d get them. Don't you know o

people in, I tho

et me

ow you must tell me all the names. This b

ne they call Mecranthon. It's a beauty, isn't it? This

ranium-this

is white flower, is-I forget its name; but this, this sweet one, is Daphne. Then here are two h

ed the delighted child. 'Oh, how perfe

onil

is it a red

flower; you

nd how sweet!

sins of the cardinal flower; that is Lobelia cardina

fe and sensibility, receptive to every influence, at twelve years old shut up to the company of a taciturn and melancholy father and an empty house! What would ever become of her? There was the colonel now, on the sofa, attending only to his book; caring nothing for what was so moving his child. Nobody cared, or was anywhere to sympathize with her. And if she grew up so, shut up to herself, every feeling and desire repressed for want of expression or of somebody to express it t

examined the collection carefully, looking to see if there were anything that looked like contraband 'Christmas greens.' There were some sprigs of laurel and holly, that served to make the hues of the bouquet more varied and rich. That the colonel did not think of; all he saw was that they wer

nt, 'I think somebody has been at my

d holly,' said her father. 'I cannot

d not mean them fo

or no, I prefer not

off the unsightly dry leaves and withered blossoms; but all would not do; they lasted for a time, and then followed the law of their existence and faded. What Esther did then, was to fetch a large old book and lay the different sprigs, leaves or flowers, carefully among its pages and put them to dry. She loved every leaf of them. They were associated in her mind wi

that the vase was empty, and asked Es

apa; they were spoilt;

you do w

ht I would try

at did you d

that old, odd volume

here and l

to the side of the sofa, and turned over the pages carefully, showing the dried a

those things, when they are dr

ok, papa; it is

o with them? Are they to

here to dry. I put a weight on t

what

them out, papa.

ill you do

keep the

owers after their beauty is gone?

ith a certain tenderness for the plants manife

parcel of dry leaves? Love what is worthy to be l

, p

only rubbish. I object to the hoar

tter of that, Colonel Gainsborough had very little power of association. He would indeed have regarded with sacred reverence anything that had once belonged to his wife, down to her shoe; in that one instance the tension of feeling was strong enough to make the chords tremble under the lightest touch. In other relations, what did it matter? They were nothing to him; and if Colonel Gain

any notice of her delay of obedience. That she would obey he knew; and he let her take her time. So he did not see the big tears that filled her eyes, nor the quiet way in which she got rid of them; while the hurt, sorrowful, regretful look on her face would have certainly moved Pitt to indignation if he had been where he could see it. I am afraid, if the colonel had seen it, he would have been moved quite in a different way. Not to anger, indeed; Colonel Gainsborough was never angry with his child, as truly she never

where her flowers had lain. Here had been heath; there coronilla; here-oh, here was still the wallflower! Dried beautifully; delicate and unbroken, and perfect and sweet. There was nothing else left, but here was the wallflower. A great movement of joy filled Esther's heart; then came a doubt. Must this be burned too? Would this one little sprig matter? She had obeyed her father, and destroyed all the rest of the bouquet; and this wallflower had been preserved without her knowledge. Since it had been saved, might it not be saved? Esth