Various

“ She said, "'With more sense than many others of that description.' Pray, my dear Jack, what think you Sir Ralph might have meant to signify?"
"Why, ma'am, I take it thus. Many a man is brave and fights well, who in fact is nought else beside. Whereas General Moore is a man of extraordinary genius and great nobility of character, one who shines in whatever society he may find himself, and above all, who is ardently beloved by everybody that knows him. ”

“ By the witty girl is not here meant the girl—if such a girl exists—whose conversation has the high brilliancy which characterises the conversation of certain men and women.
No. The thing here meant is nothing more than the common domestic wit-snapper, generally, say her enemies, more of a snapper than a wit, concerning which statement it is perhaps not unpermissible to say that he who makes it shows himself to be less a wit than a snapper. ”

“ No lily will flower every year, and some lilies require a year or two to get accustomed to a new home. These will not flower the first year. As a rule, when a bulb does not send up a flowering shoot, the bulb itself grows to a very large size.
It is most annoying to see a lily which promises well belie itself and produce either a deformed or a cankered flower. The cause of the first is almost always green fly. To this we will refer later. The cause of the latter is either too poor soil, abuse of liquid manure, or continuous rain just before the flowers open. ”

“ Something very similar holds good in the case of girls—and there are many such—who, while witty in society, are deplorably glum in the family circle, in this unlike a girl of girls whom her father called "Minnehaha"—laughing water—so merry was she in her home, beyond which her influence was to be shed so far that she is known to-day from Indus to the Pole as the friend of Indian women. ”

“ We have ever since been ashamed of ourselves for not offering him one of the blossoms for a buttonhole.
The discouraging news given at the end of our first chapter led us to think: "Lilies will not grow in pots, but some kinds do fairly well in the open." "Lilies though suitable for pot plants are unsatisfactory for the flower-bed." Surely it is impossible to reconcile these two statements. Either one or both opinions must be incorrect. We must settle this point, and we can easily do so by growing lilies, both in pots and in the open ground. ”

“ It is doubtless the circumstance that unkindness is so often confounded with wit that has led to the fact that of all good gifts the good gift of wit is the one held in least liking by the majority of persons. The truth would seem to be that, with wit, as with everything else not intrinsically bad, the thing of main importance is that it be handled carefully. Like gunpowder, it has its uses to him who knows how to avail himself of them. ”

“ Every day more and more leaves die, and eventually what was once a beautiful plant is now a naked stalk with a girdle of fallen yellow leaves and buds around it. Dig up the plant and examine its bulb and roots. The base of the bulb is gone! And its place is taken by a mass of evil-smelling pulp. Swarms of little thread-like worms will be seen twisting about all over the diseased portion. It seems natural to think that these worms are the cause of the evil, but we do not think that this is so. The worms are the result, not the cause of the disease. ”

“ Warts are more common on the hands than anywhere else. Of their cause we know but little. Irritation sometimes causes them, and they are to a certain extent infectious from place to place. We used to be taught that lady-birds produced or cured them, according to which version of the story we heard. There is about an equal amount of truth in each doctrine.
The best way to treat warts is to first soak the hand in hot water, and clean it thoroughly with soap. Then paint the skin surrounding the wart with vaseline, and drop on to the wart itself one drop of glacial acetic acid. ”

“ The damage which slugs can do to lilies is incredible, and unless these pests are summarily dealt with, every lily in a garden may be decapitated ere the summer commences. One reason why lilies in pots do so well is that it is not so easy for the slug to get at them.
The lilies are singularly exempt from the ravages of animals other than slugs. The aphides or green flies are, however, often very troublesome. We will refer to this pest when talking of the treatment of lilies just before and during the flowering stage. ”

“ The appearance of the hands is secondary only to that of the face, and many women pride themselves upon their beautiful white hands. But it is not everybody who can have white hands. Manual labour will always make the hands red and rough, and no amount of applications will whiten them. General servants and laundry women cannot expect their hands to remain white. It is interesting to see why house labour should injure the appearance of the hands in this way. In the first place the hands must get a good deal knocked about by the rough work necessary in a household. ”

“ So far as it was possible to judge, there was nothing to be developed on the plate.
"A nice photographer you are, I must say! What are you playing at now?" asked Max, in scornful impatience, and Oswald turned severely to Peggy—
"Which shutter did you draw out? The one nearest to yourself?"
"Yes, I did—of course I did!"
"You drew out the nearest to you, and the farthest away from the lens?"
"Precisely—I told you so!" and Peggy bridled with an air of virtue.
"Then no wonder nothing has come out! You have drawn out the wrong shutter each time, and the plates have never been exposed. ”

“ But some of these diseases give great trouble to the lily grower, and often tax his patience to the utmost.
Some lilies are very prone to a form of mildew which, beginning as a minute spot of discolouration on one leaf, eventually destroys the whole of the foliage and flower-buds, and turns a beautiful, well-grown, apparently healthy lily into a brown slimy stick.
This disease usually begins to show itself about the middle of May. A small grayish transparent spot appears on one leaf, and in about a month it has spread and completely destroyed the plant. ”

“ The wood-pigeons are quiet now, only how white the lilies shine—against the darkness; and the bees—the bees are humming still, and the—limes—are—so sweet."
For a moment the tired voice stopped, then began again:
"Never a someone else, my Joan, only you. And the years slipped, and I forgot how fast they went; we will have hollyhocks—in our own garden, dear."
The doctor, summoned by Richard, had entered the room, but he shook his head sadly, and moved towards the door.
"There is nothing to be done," he whispered to the servant, "we had better leave them alone. There is nothing we can do." ”

“ If they be right who consider, in opposition to Juliet, that something is in a name, then those among us who hold that such a name as Juliet tends to annihilate wit in the possessor of it are not mere fancy-mongers, and we are entitled to a courteous hearing when we submit that on the other hand the name Nelly, and still more the variant of it by which it becomes Nell, almost announces the owner of it to be a wit. ”

“ The fact that your hearing is not at all affected, is a strong point against the noises being due to disease of the auditory nerve. It is not, however, an absolutely certain test of the condition of the nerve. When noises in the head are due to brain disease, they are almost invariably accompanied with severe and frequent, if not constant, headaches. The treatment that we advise is for you to attend to the general laws of health and diet. As regards drugs we think that you would derive most benefit from tabloids of bone marrow. ”

“ As soon as the soot gets wet it is no longer a deterrent to slugs. Lime is also recommended to be used in the same way as soot; but it, too, fails to serve its purpose when it has once become damp.
Then have we no way to keep down the ravages of slugs? Yes!—we have one way, a very excellent way, but a most tedious and unpleasant one to carry out. The only effective way of thwarting the ravages of the slugs is to pick off by hand the culprits, while they are gorging themselves in the evening. ”

“ Can you be so hard-hearted as to hold out even now, in the face of all this youth and elegance? See—there goes a bewitching young woman, though 'tis true she wears a shocking unbecoming gown! But she's a prodigious favourite, and she can dance as tolerable a minuet as any young female present. ”

“ Few flowers are easier to grow in pots than lilies, and as they form probably the finest of all pot plants the culture of lilies in pots deserves more attention than it has heretofore received.
There are two ways of potting lilies, each of which has its advantages and uses, so we will describe both methods.
The first method is the simplest. Take a large flower-pot. No lily should be grown in a pot less than six inches in diameter. Of course the pot must vary in size with the size of the plant it has to contain. Lilium Concolor and Elegans grow well in six-inch pots ”

“ There is neither animal nor plant which is exempt from disease, and the lily has inherited this universal tendency to disease. There are not many common diseases of lilies, and very few even of these do much damage to more than one or two kinds. ”

“ Not long ago golf was regarded as an occupation for elderly gentlemen whose time and energies were at the service of any respectable game. With much impressiveness they used to traverse the links decked in red coats, the brilliancy of which signified the extremity of the danger to which the unwary onlooker was exposed. ”

“ In first attempts all the fulness of the skirt invariably falls to the left; this can be remedied as the machine is in motion by a little forward movement throwing the weight on pedals and handle-bar, then as the skirt falls straight down, move centrally backwards to the saddle again. Be in no hurry to reach the saddle and the skirt will adjust itself. Move well forward with the downward movement of the pedal, throw the weight on the handles as it rises, the peak of the saddle will then divide the skirt as you take your seat and give your first thrust to the right pedal. ”

“ One bulb only should be placed in each pot if absolutely perfect plants are desired; but very pretty effects can be obtained by growing two or three bulbs in a large pot or tub.
See that the pot is perfectly clean. Place about an inch depth of crocks, stones, etc., at the bottom, then put three inches of the prepared soil in the pot, and over this place a thin layer of peat, mixed with sharp sand and pieces of charcoal. Take the bulb, examine it, remove diseased scales and wash it in lime water, as you did in the case of the lilies you planted out last month. ”

“ Those kinds which send up shoots in January, February, or March may need slight protection, such as a hand light, from frosts. As the season advances you must guard against two great enemies—slugs and drought. A dry April, not at all an unusual occurrence, will often do great damage in the lily garden.
During growth lilies require a very large amount of water. In a dry season it is a good plan to water them every day. An insufficient supply of water is one of the commonest causes of failure with lilies.
With lilies in pots only an occasional watering will be required before the shoots appear. ”

“ How are we to treat them before the flowering season arrives?
Lilies out in the ground require but very little attention until the shoots appear. In severe winters Lilium Giganteum, Cordifolium, Speciosum, and one or two others, should be protected by bracken or other litter; but lilies stand the frost remarkably well, and rarely suffer from this cause before the flower shoots appear. Lilies grow all through the winter, forming roots. Lilium Candidum puts up an autumn growth of leaves, and occasionally other lilies do the same. When the shoots appear more attention is required. ”

“ One of the greatest testimonies to the value of these flowers is that the buds will develop and open into blossoms of their natural size while in water in a close room of a London square, and another reason for their value is that they last two or three weeks if attended to about every other day, that is, longer than any other cut flower of our cultivation.
A month ago we took up to town a bunch of Lilium Speciosum from our little country garden to garnish the dinner-table of a well-known doctor on the day of his golden wedding. ”

“ While all but invariably of a character that loses much by the process of retailing, the wit of the girl here in view will sometimes bear being brought to book. The samples of it given in this paper are all authentic and heretofore unpublished. They do not, perhaps, reach a high standard of excellence, but they who know girls will concede that they are good girl-wit of the middle order. ”

“ Both were immensely interested to hear Jack's news—how, in less than a week, he would be off to Sandgate, there to be under the command of General Moore; and there also, as Jack hoped, to be called upon to bear the first brunt of Napoleon's invasion.
"Not you, my dear sir," objected the Admiral, with beaming face. "Before ever Boney reaches English shores, depend on't, he'll render a good account of himself to our ships of war. Trust gallant Nelson for that, since he's on the look-out. I doubt me, Boney won't contrive to give our Navy the slip." ”

“ You will see the slugs congregated on your pets by hundreds, from the little tiny fellow of one-quarter of an inch long, who is eating your best lilies in order that he may grow into a larger and more capacious enemy, to the slimy monster of six inches long, who is attempting to fill his vast maw with lilies of great value. ”

“ Where lilies can have a good rich soil, with plenty of water, the disease is very uncommon.
Once established, this disease is very difficult to cure. Syringing with solution of sulphuretted potash, or of sulphur boiled in lime{125} water, will sometimes stop it, but too frequently the disease runs its course to the bitter end. If you uproot the plant and examine its bulb and root, you will find both quite healthy-looking. ”

“ For the pastry for the pie she used half a pound of flour mixed with a good teaspoonful of baking powder, and three ounces of dripping rubbed in lightly. Her hands seldom got hot, so she made delicious pastry, and as she was careful not to pour in too much water, when mixing the flour and dripping to a dough, it was not tough. She mixed in the water quickly and lightly, using a knife to begin the mixing and finishing with her hands, keeping it as cool as possible while it was being made, and being very careful not to squeeze it, or work it about more than was absolutely necessary. ”

“ Not all lilies suffer from this disease, and of those which are liable to be attacked, not all suffer to the same extent. Of all lilies, Lilium Candidum is the most frequently attacked, and in this lily the disease usually destroys the deciduous portion of the plant altogether. ”

“ When you have placed the bulb in the pot you add a little soil, but leave the top of the bulb exposed. When growth commences, which will be shown by the appearance of roots and flower stems, you fill up the pots with the prepared soil. ”

“ As soon as this stage is reached they should be watered daily until the flower-buds appear.
{124}
If only we could guard against slugs! These are the greatest of all pests to the lily grower, and though there are many infallible preventives against slugs used and sold, not one of them answers its purpose. Soot is usually regarded as the best agent to use to prevent slugs from eating the tender spring growth of lilies. The soot is thickly dusted round the plant, and as slugs very much dislike any powder which adheres to their slimy bodies, they will not venture across the sooty track. ”