Part 6 (2/2)

What her father did say when first the plan was mooted, was a downright ”No! I can keep my children as long as I can work, and Bella can find enough to do at home.”

”Yes, I know,” answered Aunt Maggie gently, when he had repeated this more than once, and each time more emphatically. ”And what about the time when you can't work, William? or, if anything was to happen to you?

Do you think it is right or fair to bring up children without any knowledge that'll earn them a decent, respectable living?”

William Hender had no answer ready, and sat trying in vain to find one.

”If she were to begin in a small way, such as I'm suggesting, who knows but what, in time, she might work up a little business, and be able to make quite a nice little living out of her flowers and things? She has a wonderful gift for raising them and understanding them, and it does seem a sin not to make use of it. Don't you think so?”

William Hender nodded thoughtfully; this new way of looking at things impressed him. He was proud, too, of Bella's skill with her garden, and his thoughts flew beyond the present to the future, where in his mind's eye he saw a tidy little shop well stocked with fruit and flowers and vegetables, and Bella the prosperous owner of it all, and his heart swelled with pride.

”You are right, Maggie,” he said, as he rose to go. ”You always are, I think. I'll talk to Emma about it, and I'll look about me the next time I go to Norton, and see if there's any shop there that'll be likely to take her flowers. It might be better for her to sell them that way.

Good-night.”

Bella's heart beat fast and furious when she heard that her father approved of the scheme, and when the children were told about it they all flew into a state of wild excitement. Of course they all wanted to be market-gardeners at once. ”Why can't we all go shares in a stall in Norton Market?” cried Tom. ”Bella can sell flowers and herbs, and me vegetables, and Charlie fruit, and Margery----”

”Fairy roses,” said Margery eagerly. She always called her flowers that had come so mysteriously 'fairy flowers.'

”I was in Norton Market-house once,” went on Tom, ”and oh, it's a fine place!”

Norton, their nearest and largest market-town, was five miles off, and as there was no railway to it, and they had no cart to take them, a visit to the town was one of the rarest treats they knew.

When the first excitement had worn off, and Aunt Emma had been talked to and won over, and all that remained to be done was for their father to go to Norton and look out for a florist, matters seemed to go no further.

He was at work on every day of the week except Sat.u.r.day afternoons, and then there was always so much to be done at home he never seemed able to spare the time. Five miles to Norton and five miles back was a long distance to cover, with no other means of covering it than one's own two feet, or a chance 'lift'; and he kept on putting the matter off.

”All my sweet-peas are pa.s.sing,” sighed Bella, when another Sat.u.r.day had come and gone, and her father had not again spoken of going to Norton.

”Tom, I've a good mind to go myself next Sat.u.r.day, and take some flowers, and try to sell them. Will you come with me? Do you think you could walk so far?”

Tom was indignant at this reflection on his manliness. ”Walk it! I should rather think so! I can if you can, anyhow!”

”It's a good long way,” said Bella reflectively; ”p'raps we could get a lift home. I wonder if Aunt Emma will let us go? Oh, Tom, I wish she would. I shall hate it at first, but it does seem a pity to waste all my flowers, and I do want to earn some money to buy a hotbed and some more seeds; there's ever so many kinds I want to get.”

To their great surprise, Aunt Emma agreed quite willingly to the scheme as soon as she was told of it. She saw nothing to object to in it, she said, and it never entered her head to think that the walk might be too long for either of them. ”If Sat.u.r.day turns out wet or rough, you needn't go,”

she said cheerfully.

”I should have to if I'd got customers waiting,” thought Bella; but she did not argue the point; she was thankful to have won the permission she wanted, and too fearful of losing it, to run any risks.

How the four children lived through the excitement of the next few days they scarcely knew. For Charlie and Margery there was disappointment mingled with the excitement,--disappointment that they could not go too; but there was much that was thrilling, even for those who stayed at home, and they were promised that they should walk out along the road to meet the others at about the time they would be expected back.

Tom, on the whole, got the most enjoyment out of it all, because for Bella there was a good deal of nervous dread mingled with the excitement and pleasure.

”I do hope I meet with nice customers,” she said to Aunt Maggie the day before, when she went down to ask her to help her re-trim her rather shabby Sunday hat for her. ”I hope they don't speak sharp when they say they don't want any flowers.”

”You generally find folks speak to you as you speak to them,” said Aunt Maggie consolingly. ”If you are civil, you will most likely meet with civility from others. Look, I've got a large shallow basket here that I thought would do nicely to hold your flowers and show them off prettily.

The cover will help to keep them fresh. You'll have to be up early to gather them, child. And do give them a drink of water before you start.

You'll find they'll last fresh twice as long. In fact, I believe it would be even better to gather them the evening before, and let them stand in water all night, then you would only have to arrange them in bunches before you start.”

Bella thanked her delightedly, and ran off home with her new basket and her old hat, feeling as proud and pleased as any child in the land.

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