The Household

Vick's Magazine. Oa a eeríain morning, outside of Mrs. Fritz's gate stood two bright-looking girls whose steps had been arrested at sight of a canary-bird merrily singiug inside of an old, rusty, wire-trap. The uncanny cage was hanging among clambering vines whose trailing ends sheltered nis prison. The girls were cousins - Clara and Amy Strong. 'Poor fellow!" said Amy, "if he could know how his home disgraces him he would never sing another note."' "ís it uot strange," said Claru, "that Mrs. Fritz has such a taste for birds and flowers and none at all for their surrouiidings ? WLat do you suppose is underneath those plants banked up against her house on each side of that rickety doorstep ?" "Earth, of course." "Not so much as you might suppose. I passed here, to and from my recitations, when she was building up those banks, and got an insight into the process. Next the step3 you notice Maderia Vmes that climb over the door ; well, the tubers of those are in old nail kegs, ana had grown a. foot when she placed them there. Each way from ,hose vines, and next the house, you see Lemon Verbenas, Flowering Begonias, Glaucium, Cape Jasmine, Euonymous, Ivy-leaved Geraniums, and Wax Plants ; the last two, as you see, supported by pieces of rough lath and tied with white cotton twine. The receptacle in which the roots of those plants repose form a medley that is rarely seen outside of a scavenger wagon. Among Lhem I remember a piece of stove-pipe with a tin lid crowded in from the upper end to form a bottom, and a mammoth boot with the foot partly chopped off. She explained that 'ven the leathers dot rottens she should blant that poot een von leetle parrei,' meaning a keg of earth, I suppose, for she went on to explain that when the leather decays 'eet ïsh more petter ash anyding for dot roots.' There was also the upper half of an old churn, with the lid fastened in to form a bottom. The dasher is utilized yonder where you see that Pilogyne blowing about. The strings, you'll notice, are tied through the holes where cream is supposed to have once gushed through, but are now stuffed with small brush, which is nearly hldden by the vine. "A tier lower down the banks you see Balsams, Mignonette, Salvias, Petunias, Jerusalem Cherry, Phlox Verbenas, Pinks, Ztnnias, and various Geraniums, all mixed up together. Lower still. and about the base, you notice Farf ugium, Peristrophe, Begonia Eex, Sensitive Plant, Coleus, Ice Plauts, Portulaca, Pansies, Sweet Elyssum, and others. Af ter the banks were thus arranged, she really did try to sereen the first unsightliness of her trumpery by inserting here and there, long-rooted sterns of the Water Ivy and Waudering Jews, and she had numerous three-inch pots of Sedum and Eock Moss, which she stuck into spaces all about, until Qnally the banks grew to be what you see them. I reported progress from time to time to Professor Banning, to whom I recite, just to see him cough and spit in disgust, cross and uncross his legs, jump up and hunt for something he did not want, and sit down again and cali her an old hag; or sometimes, when l've taken some of her great lucious flowersto analyze for him. he'll ask sharply, 'Where'd you get those?' and then say, 'O, sbe's half witch!" You see, the Professor makes a speciality of plant culture himself to a certain extent, and it rasps him to the quick to know that when they have plants that are alike, hers always ex cel. "But yonder comes Mrs. Fritz around the corner, and with her the iovely little girl whom I have of ten seen. That half-grown girl liviug with us has a sister of the same age, and she declares that tuis child was the naeans of reforming their father by some 'flower charm' or something she hardly kniw what. But it seems he had becoine such a victim of intemperance that his pride drove him among strangers, and then from sheer suffering1 and exposure he was drives toward home again, a broken down man; and having called at Mrs. Fieldings's to get warm, this child reminded him of his own, and made such an impression upon him that he went to work, and is now a very - " "Good mordings," broke from the jolly Mrs. Fritz, "haf you fright mine vlowers v'ile I leefs dem von leetle meenice mit your crow-scare names teel der heads ees weelted mit der szhame? Valk een! valk een!'' 'Thank you, we will," said Clara; -'tliia is a cousin of mms visiting me, and she is very much interested in your flower garden. But first, will you not teil me the name of this little girl?" "Goot Himmel! dot leetle girleen haf more names 'nough ash vould pe plenty for von beeg fam'lee. Von v'ile she vas Magpie, voteever dot ees; nodder v'ile she vas Puttercub, voteever dot ees; und her gran'mutter calis her Kuth, und I calis her der pest name dot never vos made, und dot's Gretchen. Now valk 'round mit your vriend." "Thanks, I will; how very largeyour Racinus has grown - it ís immense." "Now v'ich is dot?" inquired Mrs. Fritz, planting herself erect with both hands on her hips. When it was pointed out she exclaimed: "O go 'long mit you! efery pody vat knows nottings, knows dot's a Gastor Pean. The dirt vot I feeds mine garten dot more as mooch zense as your pook larnin.'' "I expect so," said Clara, "but do you know that this long row of Hollyhocks and Sunflowers next the street are just in fashion?" Vashion nottings! Dot Brovessor, ven he goes py v'ile ago last year, he say, 'More Cabbeedge, Mees Freetz? Hafs you eat up all dot oder erop? So l hides mine Cabbeedge; un now he bees mad at mine vlowers, und he valks py on der oder si de. Ha, ha, ha; I knows heem. Ven der girleens pring me Orange and Lemon zeeds, vot I plants vor leetle nosegays, vot lays py der blates at der gentry deeners, I geeves um po3ies; und I geeves der Brovessor's girleen der pest vons, so ash he can see. So next v'ile she say, 'No, thanks you; we've dot vlowers blenty.' O, I knows, I knows," and off she waddled. Then the girls sauntered around the bit of yard that had eseaped the cabbage patch, and certainly admired the three stately rows of royal looking Cannas, Gladioli and Tuberoses that separated the two grounds. Little Buttercup was near enough tohear the admiring exclamations, and said timidly, "I know what makes her things grow so big. She thinks it's a secret, but Professor Banning says it's no secret at all." "Well, then, teil us what it is," said Cl ra. "Well. she has four barrels in that old shed with sand and slacked linie and ashes and charcoal in them. The charcoal and sand she mixes with the dirt for her pot plants, and uses the lime and ashes in a nasty pile of stuff she has over yonder in the corner. O, she puts everthing in that she can rake and scrape - dead leaves and rotten cabbage, and eveiy woolen rag and stocking and shoe she can Ond. She rolls them in the thick litne and then stuffa them in out of sight. One day she punched a pig hole in the pile and poured in some lime, and then stuck in - oh-h-h - a dead cat, and covered it with lime. I haven't been neaii t since. Beside all this stuff, she puts bones into lye or something, and when they get soft she pounds and sifts them, and calis it bone-dust. In the winter she carries all her plants up staira into a big room, and stacks them up in a circle, and has a little fountain in the center." "A fountain !" "Yes ; and she won't teil me where the water comes from, but says : "O, shild, shild, don't you know dot der vorld is f uil of vater?' When lam grown up I shall have a great many flowers and lots ot Buttercups. Uncle Matt, has made a bed for them, but" - then whispering - "I shall never use dead cats." The girls had been suppressing their laughter as they listened to the charming child talking so wisely, but now were quite overeóme by their merrirnent as they stopped and told her she was the dearest darling iu the world, and shook and nugged her amid their laughter until sheïaughed and wondered, too, what it was all about. Then they told each other they should have to basten away, though they were continually seeing something that arrested their attention in by-places and corners, as everywhere else. Finally, they encountered a couple of hanging baskets, last year's Gourds, so cut as to leave the handles on the remaining part, and the OxaJis and Kennilworth Ivy were flourishing as well as though in costly vases. Finally, passing out the gate, Clara took a last look at the flower banks, and nudging Atny, remarked : "I see, Mrs. Fritz, that among your Phlox youhave the real Itadowitzii." "O you go 'vay," she answered, "tntl beeg vords. You vitch mine flax mit your Red-vitch eye." Then the girls said, "Good-morning," just as they met toxs. Fielding passing in the gate, where he found her "Ruth," and paused a moment to consult; Mrs. Fritz. "Friend Fritz," said she, I think thf e once told me that thy Passion vine has never been out of its box, although oíd and thrifty. Mine is younger, and yet the soil is completely fllled with threadlike roots that lie on the surf ace. Would thee mind telling me how thee manages think?" "O lawks, I vill dells you. I joost puts on leetle easy hot vater, vot keells the fine roots. Ven dey rots, dey makes reech dirt." "I fear the hot water would kill mine, entirely." "Dofc's vot the volks zay ven I dells 'em," she answered, well pleased, her brawny figure shaking with laughter. And thus we must leave her.