VINA'S WILD FLOWERS.
MILLIE, will you go for a walk in the woods this afternoon, if I will come over after you? It is so warm and pleasant, and I wish to gather some flowers once more before they are gone."
"They are all gone now, I guess."
"Oh, no! Some of the latest, you know, last until after the hard frosts."
"Well, I will go, if you wish."
So that afternoon Millie Earl and Vina Somers spent in the woods, gathering flowers and mosses, lichens and autumn leaves, and, withal, laughing and chatting like the merry, joyous-hearted girls they were.
At early dusk, they started for home, with their baskets heavily laden.
The next day, Millie called at Vina's home.
Seeing only a few sprays of flowers in a vase on the mantel, she exclaimed:—
"Why, Vina, where are the rest of your flowers?
You had more than that, when I left you last night. What did you do with them?"
"Well," said Vina, "I called at Auntie Wild's for a glass of water; and as I was drinking, the old lady said: 'Why, what pretty posies! They make me think of the days when I was young, and used to ramble in the woods. My rheumatiz will not let me go so far now, though I like the posies as well as ever. 'So I divided with her.
She seemed so pleased as she got an old pitcher, and put them in it, placing it on her stand, just back of her Bible, so she could see them all the time.
"Then, I met some children, and they looked at my basket with such longing eyes that I gave each one a spray of flowers and a cluster of scarlet berries.
"And, lastly, as I was passing Widow Morton's, I saw her little crippled Lena sitting out on the stoop, so I stopped to speak to her. She said it seemed so warm and pleasant that she wanted to get out, for it would soon be cold winter weather, and then she would have to stay indoors all the while. She admired my flowers, and said she wished she could go and get some too; but has she nearly all I had left. And now you know why I came home almost empty-handed," she said laughingly.
"Well, I've ever so much the nicest bouquet," said Millie. "Uncle Henry thought it was beautiful; and Prof. Spencer called to see papa last night, and he noticed and admired my flowers too. I told them I thought your bouquet would be the handsomest, as you had more than I. But you were foolish enough to give yours all away."
"Not quite all. I kept enough to keep the day and the grand old woods in remembrance. And I made hearts happy all along the way."
"But only for a moment or two," said Millie.
"Well, that was something," answered Vina.
"Life is made up of moments, you know."
And Millie went home with a new idea springing up in her mind and heart. —
Well-Spring.