Various

“ If I were to sit long over anything I should get quite wild; and then I should have an attack directly. That’s the worst of it. I can’t make myself do things like other people. I get ill directly. Not that I care so much myself; I’ve made up my mind not to care about anything; but just to take what comes. But it worries mother, and I must think of her; so I’ve got to take care of myself, though I do get very sick of it!”
Cyril had got Sheila into a quiet corner where Oscar had joined them in response to the summons of her eyes. ”

“ Lucy remembered now that Mrs. Morison had not seemed brightened by this visit, nay, that for a day or two afterwards she had even seemed a little depressed. It occurred to Lucy that perhaps this cousin had come possibly seeking a little loan, or perhaps pressing for the repayment of some trifling debt. Lucy knew that one or two of Pollie’s relatives had not been inclined to spare her hard earnings, and that Charlie and she had intervened to protect the girl from the weak soft-heartedness which can be so easily wrought upon by the loafing or the greedy. ”

“ It is monstrous to pay such a sum for a lily which at its best is only of inferior beauty.
The lilies which we have considered so far are all remarkable for the elegance of their forms and the striking colours of their flowers. If the reader has dreamed that all lilies are equally beautiful, or, at all events, that all are of great beauty and elegance, we are sorry to have to awaken him to the sad reality that there are many lilies which are not beautiful in colour and which are extremely inelegant in form. ”

“ Lucy smiled and hurried away. A cab? No! A woman who knows what it is to earn shillings cannot willingly afford to spend them because another woman’s whim delays her. Lucy, too, looked at her watch. There would be just time for her to reach home ere her guests arrived.
When they got into the quieter streets she shortened the journey by running little races with Hugh. Nevertheless, just as they came in sight of the house with the verandah, they saw Mr. Somerset’s cab drive up.
They all went in together. Of course, Mrs. Morison opened the door. ”

“ She laid down her pen, sprang up and hurried to the kitchen, which was pervaded by festive smells of spice and stuffing herbs.
“Mrs. Morison,” she said, “as your month’s wages are due just after the New Year, I should like to advance them to you now. Most of us spend a little extra at this season, and as you haven’t been earning money for some time, you may not have much cash ready at hand. For one does not care to disturb one’s little investments to buy Christmas cards or comforters.” ”

“ Elegance of speech is not, as a rule, a primary characteristic of the athletic girl, and it has been noticed that, while she prefers the use of any name to that of the baptismal or family one, she usually goes to the brute creation for a substitute, selecting—in so far merciful—the names of the pleasantly associated animals commonly called domestic. ”

“ Lilium Philadelphicum is an American species, and has a rhizomotose bulb. The stem produces a single blossom, dirty orange colour spotted with black and yellow. It requires a wet, very peaty soil.
Another American species is Lilium Catesbaei, a very curious and interesting plant. The bulb is unlike that of any other lily except L. Avenaceum. It somewhat resembles a fir-cone. This plant grows to the height of about a foot. It produces a single blossom, about five inches across. ”

“ A very similar species is Lilium Davuricum, a native of Siberia. The wild plant rarely bears more than two blossoms on each stem; but in cultivation flower-spikes of twenty or more blossoms are not uncommon.
L. Davuricum is frequently grown in gardens. There is a large number of named varieties of this lily, but all the forms are very similar, and in no way deserve separate names. The plant grows to about four feet high, and produces from four to thirty flowers of a dirty orange colour. ”

“ It is indeed a matter of congratulation that our English ancestors were able to live in abodes unsurrounded by fortifications, and to pursue their humble avocations without the dread of invasion by some foreign foe; but as it does not seem to be the design of Divine Providence that man should pass this life without troubles and anxiety, civil wars were not unfrequent, even in this happy isle. ”

“ A curious fact, which we have frequently noticed in connection with this lily, is that the size of the annual portion of the plant seems to bear no relation to the size of the bulb. In most lilies large bulbs produce fine plants, though we have seen that this is by no means always the case. But with L. Tigrinum the shoot apparently bears no relation whatever to the size of the bulb. If planted in very good soil, all the bulbs of L. Tigrinum seem to do equally well; whereas in an unsuitable soil all seem to fare equally poorly. ”

“ Not always, but very often, the athletic girl’s is the prosaic type of mind, concerning which Lowell writes—
“The danger of the prosaic type of mind lies in the stolid sense of superiority which blinds it to everything ideal, to the use of everything that does not serve the practical purposes of life. ”

“ One of the best of the Isolirion group of lilies is Lilium Batemanniae. This plant resembles L. Elegans in some particulars, but its blossoms are quite distinct. They are of a rich unspotted apricot colour. The perianth is more reflexed than is commonly the case in this group. It flowers in the late summer. It should be grown in a good peaty soil.
Lilium Wallacei, a very similar species, has the flowers of a rich apricot, densely spotted with black. The bulbs of this species are very small. ”

“ L. Tigrinum is one of the two lilies which constantly bear bulblets in the axils of their leaves. We have seen that under certain circumstances several of the other lilies produce these aërial bulblets, but the tiger-lily invariably does so. The bulblets are deep glossy purple in colour, and are often produced in great numbers. If planted as soon as they are ripe, they will grow freely and produce flowering spikes in their second or third year. ”

“ Of course, all may go well, and neither the man, nor his wife, nor his children may ever develop consumption; but with the history that you give us, we fear that such a happy result is very doubtful. If the man has got the disease at present, marriage is out of the question.
Puzzled Reader.—You should eat well, keep warm, and take plenty of exercise. How to do these is the question. A mixed diet should always be taken. If your digestion is good, oatmeal and other coarse farinaceous food will help to keep you warm. If your digestion is faulty, bread and milk is better. ”

“ The colouring is darkest in the centre, round a pink circle, from which start three “stamens” of brown chenille edged with fine tinsel. Some of the same Japanese tinsel is used for veining the flower, and a few gilt sequins are introduced to give a little additional brightness. The stem is of green chenille.
To make up the reticule, the panel covered with embroidery as well as the opposite one of pale terra cotta, blue and gold brocade were lined with thin silk of a dull, brownish terra-cotta colour. ”

“ There’s a mighty differ between people, as I’ve often heard my poor husband say.”
Lucy went back to her letter as light-hearted and elate as we always feel after doing a trifling kindness. She confided it all to her letter to Charlie—told him why she had interrupted her writing, and how very pleased Mrs. Morison had been, and how nicely she always spoke about “the master.” She added that she should finish her letter on the evening of Christmas Day after the visitors had gone, when she could tell him how everything had passed off. ”

“ Now there can be no doubt that parish churches in the country were nearly always in former times erected in the villages or towns they were intended to serve, and the only way of accounting for their now being at a distance from one another is by supposing that some great pestilence has at some period swept away the population of that part of the village which adjoined the church. That the pestilence should attack that particular portion of the village more than another is highly probable, because its proximity to the church and churchyard would render it more liable to infection. ”

“ Enlarged tonsils are an exceedingly common cause of foul breath. Some forms of chronic catarrh of the nose and throat are also connected with bad breath. Then again, the breath may acquire a bad smell from disease of the lungs. The stomach also may cause the breath to smell bad; as a symptom of indigestion, bad breath is not uncommon. Lastly, poisons circulating in the blood will taint the breath. A mild form of this taint of the breath due to substances circulating in the blood is the unpleasant smell of persons who have eaten onions or garlic. ”

“ It is one of the changes which time has wrought in her case that she no longer wishes that. She is happy and proud to{535} be a girl of to-day, believing, as she does, that girls and women never had a chance to distinguish themselves in feats of strength till to-day. ”

“ Formerly this lily was called Lilium Lancifolium, or the lance-leafed lily, a name which, though it might be equally well applied to nearly every known species of lily, is yet better than either of its modern names. But we cannot use this name, for florists will persist in applying the name Lancifolium to L. Speciosum.
L. Elegans grows about a foot high, and each stem bears from one to four blossoms. The blossoms are very large, very inelegant, and short-lived. But they make up to a certain extent in colour what they lack in form. ”

“ I expect it is,” said Cyril; “but what I was going to say was that it would probably bring some of the better people into touch with us, and they’ll be sure to take to you, Sheila. The Bensons are nobodies—he’s the Mayor this year, and they have plenty of money, and give themselves airs over it. But if the thing is taken up by the county—as I expect it will be, for Mr. Ransom is a well-born man, and has come with introductions to a good many of the best families—we shall get other volunteers of a different sort, and that will be a good thing for you and Oscar.” ”

“ This lily is a native of China and is at present extremely scarce. Unless you are prepared to give ten shillings for a single bulb it is not worth while to grow it. If the bulbs ever get to be as cheap as a shilling or eighteenpence each, it will be well worth growing, but at ten shillings a bulb! ”

“ When asked what he wished to say, why he should not receive punishment for this offence, he replied that he ought to be treated as a great moral teacher, because the confidence trick could only succeed with people who were covetous and desirous of acquiring other people’s money without giving an equivalent for it, and that when they found that they had lost their money, it taught them to be more cautious and less grasping. ”

“ The Orangemen are said to grow none but the orange lily, while the rest of the population cultivate only the Madonna lily (L. Candidum) .
A variety of L. Croceum named Chauixi is of a bright yellow colour, and is finer than the type.
This lily is found wild in various parts of Central Europe. It has been in cultivation for centuries; but lately it has almost lost its place as a garden lily, having been discarded in favour of some of the varieties of L. Davuricum, which are much cheaper, but nothing like so fine. ”

“ If you decline to purchase a frame, and write telling him to return your photograph, you receive no reply to your letter, and finally, to recover the photograph which you value, you send the money for the frame, and receive a fairly good crayon enlargement of your photograph in a frame which has cost you as many guineas as it is worth shillings.
There is a class of advertisement which may be seen in almost any weekly paper which just borders on the fraudulent. Even if they are genuine in themselves—and some undoubtedly are not—they open the door to fraud. ”

“ They are of low growth, and the blossoms are mostly orange in colour.
This group of lilies contains many old garden favourites which, though they possess but little individual beauty, are yet pleasing in the flower bed from the brightness and size of their blossoms, and for the early period at which they flower.
There is a great sameness about the members of the group Isolirion, and as there are many garden varieties of most of the species, some of which are possibly hybrids, it is a most difficult task to separate the various species from one another.
We associate the lily with elegance. ”

“ The reticule at Fig. 4 is made on quite a different principle throughout. The front and back are formed of shield-shaped panels of wood or strong card, covered with chenille embroidery and with brocade respectively. The front section only concerns us here. The fabric chosen is dark blue velvet, and on this is worked in tones of brighter blue a very conventional flower. Long and short stitch is used for the shading, the stitches being made, of course, with a large-eyed needle threaded with chenille. ”

“ Every purchaser is told in the advertisement that he will be entitled to receive a prize of £10 if he guesses rightly; but when he has made his purchase and sent in his solution, he will find that either only the first letter opened gets the prize, or that every competitor having guessed correctly, he is only entitled to receive a halfpenny for his share of the money. ”

“ Oh, you needn’t be as straight-laced as all that, Oscar. People can’t help knowing the difference between—what shall we call it?—the real thing and the imitation! There are some really nice people I should like Sheila to know. Their name is Lawrence, and they do call here. They bought or took a place about five miles away some little time ago, and the mater was induced to call. They don’t come often; but most likely the girl would be glad to help in these goings on. ”

“ Tonsils which render the breath fetid should be removed, for they are dangerous centres from which serious diseases may start. For the bad breath arising from troubles in the mouth or throat, a mouthwash of boracic acid and lavender water, or dilute carbolic acid, or of permanganate of potash is very useful. Orris root, eucalyptus lozenges, etc., are also very valuable. When the smell is derived from the nose, local measures are alone of any service. ”

“ Cumberland Lassie.—The high glaze employed by washerwomen for linen is produced by mixing some wax or fat with the starch. This is a difficult undertaking, even when hot. But starch-glazes may be purchased ready for use, which may be employed safely, and are sold at any good oil-shop. Some people, who wash articles at home, simply stir the starch while hot with a wax candle. The following is a good recipe for a glaze: Take 100 parts of wheat starch, 0.75 of stearinic acid, melt the latter with about ten times its weight of the former. ”