LITTLE FLOWER GIRLS

In the hot room, high up under the eaves of the little brown house, Peace sobbed out her anguish of soul, and then faced the problem of shoes with a dauntless spirit.

“We’ll have to have new ones when school begins again, and if we could just get some of these canvas things to wear during the summer, our old ones would last quite a while longer. Mercy, where does the money go? Seems as if there never was any to buy things we need with. Wish my tramp would come back and leave us another bill. Wish why didn’t I think of that before? The woods are full of flowers yet. I’ll get Hope and Cherry to help me make a lot of birch bark baskets and then Allee and me will sell them in the city. My tramp said lots of folks would buy them if they got a chance. Oh, Cherry, let’s go down to the creek and get some more bark. Tomorrow’s Sunshine Club day and we will take Miss Dunbar some baskets for her flowers.”

Glad to distract Peace’s thoughts from her great woe, Cherry agreed, and the two made a hurried trip to the woods for material, getting not only a big armful of bark, but also quite a bunch of moccasin flowers and tiger lilies, which they had chanced upon in an unexpected nook.

“These will be lovely for tomorrow, and ought to sell better than the violets would, ’cause they aren’t so common,” said Peace, as she looked lovingly down at the mass of red, gold and pink.

“Ought to what?” asked Cherry.

“Oh, dear, what have I said?” thought Peace in dismay; but quickly concealing her confusion, she replied, “They ought to look nice make better dec’rations, ’cause these are the first I’ve seen this year.”

“Oh! I thought you said sell, and I wondered if you thought Miss Dunbar would pay us for them.”

“Oh, mercy, no!” laughed Peace, and Cherry questioned no further.

But she would have been surprised had she seen this young sister stealing out of the house the next morning with baskets and flowers in her arms, headed in the opposite direction from Miss Dunbar’s village home. Once out of sight of the house, Peace broke into a wild run and never stopped until the old stone bridge was reached. Here Allee was waiting for her a queer little figure in a faded blue gown of long, long ago, hatless, barefooted, but looking oh, so sweet, with her sparkling blue eyes and her mop of tangled yellow curls crowned with a wreath of fragrant clover blossoms. “How long you’ve been!” she greeted Peace. “I thought you would never come. Where’s Cherry?”

“I came as soon as I could,” was the panting reply, as Peace dropped her burden on the grass and smoothed out a rumpled pink dress of as ancient a style as Allée’s. “I had to help with the dishes, and then Faith made me take the milk to Abbott’s so’s Hope could do something for her. I didn’t want Cherry. It takes such a long time to knock any sense into her head that we never would get into town today if she had to be coaxed. Besides, I thought if there were three of us, folks might think the whole family was out peddling, and maybe wouldn’t buy like they would of just two. There, don’t those boats look lovely? The only thing is, our basket won’t hold as many as I hoped it would. I couldn’t jam in but fifteen. That will be enough, though, if we can sell them at ten cents each. Oh, I’ve got a scheme! We will lay our flowers in the basket on the moss and hitch these horns on our dresses. I’ve got as many as ten pins in my dress which I don’t need for anything else.” While she spoke she emptied the birch bark boats of their brilliant cargo again, and deftly pinned the quaint devices to their gowns, so they dangled fantastically from their ribbon handles.

“Now are we ready?” asked Allee, as the last flower was tucked carefully away in its bed of moss, and covered over with newspapers.

“Yes, and well have to hurry or miss the car. It’s quite a ways through the woods to the track. I wish they would run clear into Parker, don’t you?”

They scrambled down the bank of the creek and scurried away through the trees to the little clearing where the city cars stopped at the end of the line.

“There’s a car just ready to start,” panted Peace, and she waved her hand frantically at the conductor who was lustily shouting, “All aboard!” and jangling the bell to hurry up any belated passengers.

“Nearly missed it, didn’t you, kids?” he said genially, as they clambered up the steps and the car moved slowly away toward the city.

“Yes,” breathed the older girl, settling her luggage on the seat and sitting down beside it. “I am very glad you waited for us. We’re anxious to get down town while our flowers are fresh.”

“Going to sell ’em?”

“Yes. You better buy a basketful. You can have a horn or a boat, and choose your own kind of flowers. We’ve got pink and yellow lady’s-slippers, tiger lilies, Johnny-jump-ups, baby’s tears, and a few Jack-in-the-pulpits.”

As she made her explanation, she drew aside the paper protecting her precious blossoms, and the man exclaimed in delight, “The woods! My, aren’t they scrumptious? I’ll take a boat. What is your price?”

“Ten cents.”

“Ten cents? Why, child, that isn’t enough! Here’s a quarter. Gimme lady’s-slippers. And say, the motorman would like one, too. He’s got a girl. Give him something swell a little of everything. There, that’s right! Stick a tiger lily right in the middle and plaster up the edges like you did mine. Whee! ain’t that gorgeous? I’ll bring you the dough right away.” Snatching up the mass of vivid colors, he dashed up the length of the car, thrust his head into the motorman’s vestibule, and after a moment’s conversation came back and dropped a half-dollar into Peace’s trembling hand, saying, “That’s his contribution. It’s worth it. Why, there ain’t a florist in the city who can show such beauties!”

“Mercy!” exclaimed the bewildered Peace, looking at her money and trying to figure out how much more was needed for her wants. “That means a pair of shoes and one over. Why, Allee, if everybody would just pay like that, we will get through quick, won’t we? But I ’xpect lots of ’em will try to make us take only a nickel. Just s’posing we get enough money to buy shoes for the whole family! Wouldn’t they be s’prised? Thank you, Mister Conductor, and thank the motorman, too. We would like to know his girl. Does she ever ride on his car and do you s’pose he would bring her over to play with us some day? We’d meet her at the end of the line. Or maybe she is too big for us.”

The conductor laughed in boyish delight, “Yes, I am afraid she is too big. In fact, she is quite a lady ” Here the car stopped for passengers, and their new friend went out on the platform where he stayed most of the time until they reached the heart of the city. But as he helped them off the car at the busy corner nearest Cameron’s Shoe Store, he said, “If I was you, I would go right over there in the door of that big building. I think you can sell all the flowers you have.”

So they took up their stand as he had suggested, and waited for customers; but though many passers-by idly wondered at the odd little figures so overhung with birch bark trifles, no one stopped to inquire their business until a big, burly policeman, who had been watching the wistful, almost frightened little faces, strolled up to them and kindly asked, “Are you lost, little girls?”

“No, sir,” promptly responded Peace, jerking aside the cover of her basket and briskly beginning to fill one of the birch bark canoes hitched to Allée’s dress. “We are selling flowers. Would you like a chance to buy some that grew in the real woods? We’ve got money enough now for three shoes, but we need three more to have enough to go around. They are only ten cents each unless you want to pay more, but we won’t sell them for a nickel.”

Seeing the blue-coated officer talking with such odd little waifs, a crowd had quickly gathered about the trio, and a host of friendly voices echoed the policeman’s hearty laugh at the jumbled recital.

“I’ll take one,” shouted a fashionably dressed man, elbowing his way to the front. “Give me a horn and fill it up with those little pansies. I haven’t seen any of them since I was a kid.”

“Those are Johnny-jump-ups,” responded Peace gravely, detaching a horn from Allée’s gown and heaping it up with the tiny flowers. “It’s ten cents or more.”

He laughed. “How much does ‘or more’ mean?”

“Much as you think they’re worth. They came from the woods, you know.”

“And you think that makes them more valuable worth more, I mean?” And he dropped a shining dollar into the small, brown hand.

“Oh, yes! City folks can’t often get wild flowers, my tramp says, and they ought to be glad for a chance to pay high for them.”

The crowd shouted, and the policeman ventured to ask, “So you think lots of the woods, do you?”

“You bet!” was the emphatic reply. “It’s next best to heaven. Just s’posing the whole world was made up of these great, high, dirty houses, without any woods or flowers or trees anywhere. Wouldn’t it be dreadful?” The dismal picture she painted was singularly effective, and other purchasers gathered around, clamoring for her wares.

“I will give you a dime for one of those pink lady’s-slippers,” said a bent, old man.

“Here’s a quarter for a spray of those white blossoms,” another voice broke in; and very quickly the fresh, beautiful, woodland flowers changed hands, while the pile of coins in Peace’s lap grew amazingly.

A little, ragged, wan-looking bootblack edged through the crowd, and stood with wistful eyes fixed on the rapidly diminishing bouquets, drinking in their beauty, and wishing with all his heart that one of them might be his. He fingered the few pennies in his pocket longingly, and finally, unable to curb his desire longer, he touched Peace’s arm and timidly faltered, “Say, lady, will ye gimme one o’ them red fellers for a cent? I I’d like one mighty well, and I ain’t got no more money to spare.”

Peace lifted her big eyes to the pale, drawn, wistful face of the boy, possibly as old as Cherry, but no older, and a great wave of pity swept through her heart. “You can have it for nothing. Here, take this whole bunch,” she said, emptying her basket and thrusting the last handful of gorgeous bloom into his trembling hands. “I am sorry all the birch bark is gone, but I am sold out. You haven’t any shoes, either. Cameron’s are selling canvas shoes today at forty-nine cents a pair. We’ve got lots more’n enough money for Cherry and Allee and me you can have this to get yourself some with.” And before her interested audience could realize what she was doing, she had selected a silver dollar from the jingling mass in her apron, and pressed it into the bootblack’s grimy fist, while he stood like one turned to stone, staring at the money, unable to believe his senses. Then he took a step toward the little flower girl, but a gentleman in the throng, deeply touched by the unusual scene, said, “Keep it, sonny, and thank the good God for such sweet spirits as hers. Here is another dollar to keep it company. Better run home now and take a little vacation. You are sick.”

Then how the men cheered! And to Peace’s utter bewilderment, one tall, dignified old gentleman, whose face looked strangely familiar, slipped a shining gold coin into her hand and another into Allée’s, saying reverently, “For the Peace which passeth understanding!”

She sat in puzzled silence for a moment, gazing first at the glittering heap in her lap, and then at the sea of friendly faces about her, while the crowd waited in curious expectancy to hear what she had to say. Her lips opened once or twice as if to speak, then closed again; but at last she said simply, “You’ve paid lots better’n I thought you would, and not a single once has anyone tried to buy a boat for a nickel. I I wish we could have brought you the whole woods, birds and all. You would have liked it better. I b’lieve I said ‘thank you’ to every one who has bought any flowers, but if I did forget, Allee hasn’t. That was to be her part just to say ‘thank you,’ so folks would know we had some manners and were glad to have you buy. But somehow, it feels here” putting her hand over her heart “as if that wasn’t enough, and so we will sing you a little song that is, Allee will sing, and I’ll whistle. I can’t really sing anything, Faith says, ’cept the tune the old cow died on. But Mike taught me how to whistle, and our minister says I do real well for a girl. I tried to think of some thankful song to sing, but I can’t remember a one just now, so we’ll sing a lullabye. Are you ready, Allee?”

“Yes.”

“Then begin!” Peace puckered her rosy lips, Allee opened her baby mouth, and this is the song they sang:

“Baby-bye, bye-oh-bye,
Baby-bye, baby-bye,
Mother’s darling, don’t you cry,
Close your eyes for night is nigh;
Baby-bye, oh, baby,
Baby-bye, oh, bye.”

“Amen,” said Peace reverently. “Now we are going to Cameron’s Shoe Store for canvas shoes. What size do you s’pose a girl two years older’n I would wear? I forgot to ask Cherry.”

“The clerk will know,” suggested someone; and the crowd went their separate ways with smiles on their lips, while the two odd, childish figures trudged around the corner to Cameron’s Shoe Store to make their important purchases. An obliging young man fitted the little feet with the precious canvas slippers, and sent them away rejoicing with a pair for Cherry, promising to exchange them for others if they failed to fit.

“Now we’ll go home,” said Peace, as they stepped out onto the sidewalk again. “Won’t Gail and Faith be s’prised? I guess we’ve got ’most money enough left to get shoes for the whole family after all. Well, sir, if they haven’t changed those cars since we went into the shoe store! We came down on a big yellow one that said, ‘Twentieth Avenue North’ on it, and here they are running two little bits of cars hitched together that say, ‘Onion Depot!’” Peace employed the phonetic method of pronouncing words, and to her young eyes u-n-i-o-n was easily onion.

“What are you going to do about it?” asked puzzled Allee.

“Sit down here on the sidewalk and wait till they change them back again,” was the reply; and Peace plumped herself down in a bunch on the curbing to watch for the yellow car which did not come. One hour dragged by, two, three. Allee was getting restless. Dinner hour had long since passed, and she was very hungry. “It’s getting pretty late, I guess,” she ventured at last. “When do you s’pose the car will come?”

“I s’pect there’s been a fire somewhere and stopped it. That happened once when Gail was in town.”

“Maybe we better start to walk, then,” quavered the little voice. “I am tired of sitting here, and Gail will fret if we don’t come pretty quick.”

“Well, perhaps we better ”

“Peace Greenfield! What on earth are you doing here?”

The two children flew to their feet with a cry of relief, “Oh, Mrs. Grinnell, our car is never coming!”

“No, I guess it won’t on these tracks,” she replied grimly, guessing from the children’s appearance something of the truth. “Does your mother or Gail know you are here? Pile in and ride home with me. Like as not your folks are half crazy with fright.”

So the weary duet climbed thankfully into the buggy and were driven safely back to Parker, where they were met by four white-faced sisters and a swarm of anxious neighbors.

“Got shoes for the whole outfit!” cried Peace by way of greeting; “and if Cherry’s don’t fit, the clerk said bring ’em back and he’d change ’em. We’ve sold all our flowers, and one man gave each of us some funny yellow quarters or I guess they are half dollars. It says on one side, ‘Five D.’ and I suppose that means five dimes, doesn’t it? Why, Gail, what are you crying for? I sh’d think you’d laugh to think there are three pair of shoes already bought, and money enough for the rest of you.”