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> own. friends.
-»Aunt Mabel.”
“".~ fore you~ get back,”
Copyright, 1909, by David 0. Cook Publishing Company. -
PUBLISHED
WEEKLY.
‘Vou: VIII. No. 36.4
DAVID C. COOK PUBLISHING CO.
, ELGIn, ILLINoIs, AND 86 WASHINGTON St., Cricaco,
September 4, 1909.
By Frances Margaret Fox
NE lovely morning’ last winter a lit-
tle girl stood in the window of an
apartment house in San Diego,, looking
out upon the bright world and wishing her-
self at home—home where snow was whirl-
ing about the house and the wind howled
down the chimney.
“When you are at home,” grumbled the
child, “there is always something to do
and somewhere to go, and you have your
I wish I had stayed with
“Tt seems to me,” mother remonstrated,
“it does seem to me, | thel, that we have
done nothing but ‘go’ ever since we came
West. Think of the happy days we-have
, had‘ in San Diego. Was anyone enjoyed
our trips.to Tia Juanna, La Jolla, Cor-
- onado, and the old mission more than you?
“Why, Ethel dear, do you forget how you
love the flowers here, masses and. masses
of flowers blooming in the winter? More
flowers than we have summers at home.”
“But, after all,” Ethel went on in petu-
lant tones, “ what fun is it to see gardens
full of flowers, when they. all belong to
strangers and you never can pick one? I'd
_rather be home looking at frost flowers on
» the windowpanes than in this country!”
“ Byidently, the baby across the hall
mother replied. “I
wonder what makes him cry so much.”
Ethel turned away from the window
with an ‘entirely different expression upon
her face. ..“* Why, mother, that baby isn’t
Well; that’s the. reason they brought him
_ to California.. I’ye been trying to get ac-
~ quainted with his sister, but she won’t talk
much more than a clam. Her mother
“isn’t strong and the baby isn’t well; that
is all I do know, except that the doctors say
“..the baby must be kept out in the fresh
‘ air.”
A moment later the door of the opposite
apartment was opened and there was the
sound of go-cart wheels in the hall. Re-
gardless of apartment house manners and
before her mother could prevent, Ethel
opened her own door for a glimpse of the
baby. Ilis sister had been crying—that fact
was the first that caught Ethel’s attention.
“. “Dear me! You homesick too?” she in-
quired.
“Oh, I don’t like to go out alone with
baby! It gets so lonesome!”
“Then do let- me
;,flaimed Ethel.
“T—I> wish .you would,” faltered the
. ~ stranger. “T’ve been too homesick eyen to
talk.. Besides that, you were always start-
ing out with your mother to go somewhere
to have a good time without having to take
~- care of a baby all alone,”
, I’m glad you can talk,” Ethel
-Yeplied with a laugh. “I thought I was
homesick for a snowstorm, but really I
suppose it was because | I missed the girls
I played with at home.’
“VWere’s hoping some good fairy will
give you children an armful of flowers be-
suggested thel’s
mother, when the two little girls walked
‘ down the quiet street together.
: say you always get what you
ventured baby’s. sister, . “ but
ro
go with you!” ex-
I.don’t believe it, because for over a month
I have been looking for a little girl to go
walking who’ could stay- out all morn-
“Ying.” .
“Well, haven’t you got one?” Ethel de-
manded, “Tfere’s me! I mean, here am
I.. Now, what’s your name?”
“Edna Carolyn; what's yours?”
“Ethel Mary,-and I’m from Marquette,
Michigan. Where’s your. home?”
“Same place.”
“And to think we might never have
known each other!” exclaimed Bthel.
“Dear me!”
“De-ah me!” echoed the baby and
laughed at his own joke.
From that moment the three were the
best of friends.
“Dit out! Baby want to dit out!”
Baby suggested at last. You see, the
mocking-birds were singing for him and
linnets' were calling to him’ from. palm
trees.
“All right, baby,” answered his sister,
“but first let’s find a place where Ethel
and I can sit down and rest while you play
on the grass. Down toward the bay, not
far from our Greylock Hall, Ethel, there’s
a little bridge over a cafion that I’ve al-
ways wanted to cross... There’s plenty of
grass everywhere around there | and chil-
dren playing.”
“Why didn’t. you ever gor?
“Oh, because when I’m alone I never
really dare go away from regular sidewalks
and stylish streets with houses on
both sides.
The little girls laughed, and baby
chimed in.
“Now, if we could. only meet
mother’s good fairy on the way,”
Ethel remarked, “this would be a
perfect morning. Only think! Roses
everywhere and yet you can’t pick
on
"The only thing to do,” Edna de-
clared, “is to live here and have. a
rose. garden of our own, We.would
have pansies, too, and mignonette—”
* And nasturtiums,” interrupted
Ethel, “and carnations all winter
long!’
“Baby want yose!”. begged the
wee lad, reaching toward a La
France rose just beyond his grasp.
“ Baby shall have it,” was the in-
stant response, and_ straightway
the owner of the rose walked out
from behind some shrubbery, cut the
blossom and gave it to the delighted
baby.
“ Good fairy!” murmured. Edna,
as the little girls walked on. “ Now
five minutes more, Ethel, and you’ll
see the bridge.”
All this’ time a good. fairy was
leading the children straight to Nas-
turtium Cafion.
There are thousands of people in
San Diego who have never heard o:
Nasturtium Caiion, either by that
name or any other; yet it is a fact
that between First street’ and the
road to Old Town on Florence Heights,
is a caiion, known to all children of the
neighborhood, where -nasturtiums grow
wild... They go down the cafion, up the
cafion, over the shrubbery, a wilderness of
brilliant bloom. The birds know the place
—birds and sunshine.
When Etheland Edna first beheld that
cafion from the bridge, they were, speech-
less with joy. | Little brother, however,
se
recognized: his opportunity. “Baby dit
down! Baby. dit down!” he squealed.
“Come-along, why don’t you?” called a
boy from below. ..“ Come along and help
yourselves ; this is a wild garden.”
“A wild garden!” repeated Ethel.
own voice sounded strange.
“Yes, the children that live near here
haye picked so many nasturtiums they have
got tired of it. Let your baby get out and
walk, and you can bring the go-cart around
by that rock and it will be safe.”
From that monient. neither Ethel. nor
Edna was ever again homesick in South-
ern California, and it is a fact that baby
forgot that he had-ever been ill. It was
marvelous how quickly: he grew strong and
well after the discovery of Nasturtium
Her
n.
When the children returned to Greylock
Hall at noon, their mothers were inclined
to believe that they had indeed met the
picked them ourselves!” announced
Ethel, “whose family knew there could be
no greater joy.
After baby had his nap. that day, two
little girls left Greylock Hall, with the lit-
tle fellow in the go-cart guarding one
mysterious ball of string. When they re-
turned the sun was low over Point Loma.
children!” exclaimed Edna’s
“What are you going to do with
that load of flowers? Every tumbler we
can spare is full of them now.”
» “Tlush!” warned Edna, whose eyes were
shining. with happiness. |“ We're going
calling.”
“Going calling?”
“Yes; these bunches of flowers are our
IT WAS AS MUCH FUN AS CHRISTMAS.
calling cards, warranted to cure homesick-
ess.. It was Ethel’s idea. We're going
to tie them on eyery doorknob in this sun-
shiny © house. Ethel says the reason
strangers are homesick in Southern’ Cali-
fornia is because they don’t get acquainted
with their neighbors ; it isn’t. snow they
miss at all.”
On tiptoe two little girls went.to the
third floor and began their work.
“Tt is) as much fun as Christmas,”
whispered Ethel.
“Or hanging May. baskets,” chuckled
Edna.
Bunches of nasturtiums tied. to door-
knobs ‘proyed magic calling cards. They
not only seemed to bear the names of Ethel
Mary and Edna Carolyn, but carried a
message from all outdoors, from birds, sun- |
shine and balmy air. Neighbors: who be-
fore had passed one another in the, halls
as if they were dumb and blind, began to
smile and bow. Under the influence’ of
daily. nasturtiums,. these neighbors
before long many of them were fairly well
acquainted.
If it hadn’t been for nasturtiums, Mrs.
Baily on the third floor would never have
known that Mrs. Patterson on. the first
floor was sister of her best ,friend back
East; nor can anyone be sure that Grand-
pa Downing would so quickly have recov-
ered from rheumatism without the flowers.
He insisted: that the very’ sight“of those
jnasturtiums always made him feel better.
Ethel Mary, Edna Carolyn and the baby
had. plenty of winter friends ever after,
because all the mothers, aunties, uncles
and grandparents in that most delightful
apartment ‘house referred — to them. as
“Our children.”
You may not realize how much that
means unless you are some day two thou-
sand miles from home,’ and homesick, be-
fore you discover your own wild garden.
—s—
PLAIN ADVICE TO OUR GIRLS,
Laughter is one of Naturé’s safety- -valves.
The old physician who recommended “a
good laugh” as a cure’for dyspepsia,
might have added a-score of other:
diseases, both mental and physical,
to be reached by the: same remedy.
And, apart from its healing proper-
ties, most of us know that there is
no music which blends so sweetly
laugh,
There is one form of mirth, how-
“ever, for which no such good words
an nature, it is an
comprehensible. fact that young peo-
ple of average wit and good sense
a habit so universally. displeasing.
Mrs. .A., while at a concert, hears
a sound of half-suppressed laughter
behind her, and turning, sees a row
of five girls, each: with her face
buried -in a handkerchtef and with
shoulders shaking in a paroxysm of
amusement. There is certainly noth-
ing to cause laughter ‘in the some-
what pathetic music, nothing funny
has happened as-far as ordinary
eyes can see. The poor. lady won-
very ridiculous about her bonnet, and
her pleasure
spoiled.
The teacher glances over — the
and asks sharply, “At what are you
laughing, _ Louise?” Louise,
after struggling a moment for self.
ntrol,. answers: “ Nothing.’ ”
& ‘Strange as ma. e. she-
spoken the truth. There is really nothing: to
laugh at, and she knows it.
There is no need for girls to. be ashamed of
laughter. And, it is - well
and to laugh where others fret. But as
value our reputation for good sense, and still
more as we value the comfort of those about
us, we should laugh in a proper way, and at .
a proper time,
with-the hum of life’s complicated -
machinery as a whole-souled, hearty 3
should be willing to make themselves’
ridiculous, as well as-obnoxious, by ~
“ders despairingly if there is anything °
school at the period of silent study,
to. look on’ the.
humorous side of life’s petty annoyances, : _
dis-
covered’ that they all spoke: English; and.
for the evening is
