in the country. The small area of a city yard planted with a few
choice kinds will often yield surprising returns under sensible
culture.

If we cultivate these beautiful and delicious fruits we always have
the power of giving pleasure to others, and he's a churl and she a
pale reflection of Xantippe who does not covet this power. The faces
of our guests brighten as they snuff from afar the delicate aroma. Our
vines can furnish gifts that our friends will ever welcome; and by
means of their products we can pay homage to genius that will be far
more grateful than commonplace compliments. I have seen a letter from
the Hon. Wm. C. Bryant, which is a rich return for the few
strawberries that were sent to him, and the thought that they gave him
pleasure gives the donor far more. They are a gift that one can bestow
and another take without involving any compromise on either side,
since they belong to the same category as smiles, kind words, and the
universal freemasonry of friendship. Faces grow radiant over a basket
of fruit or flowers that would darken with anger at other gifts.

If, in the circle of our acquaintance, there are those shut up to the
weariness and heavy atmosphere of a sick-room, in no way can we send a
ray of sunlight athwart their pallid faces more effectually than by
placing a basket of fragrant fruit on the table beside them. Even
though the physician may render it "forbidden fruit," their eyes will
feast upon it, and the aroma will teach them that the world is not
passing on, unheeding and uncaring whether they live or die.

The Fruit and Flower Mission of New York is engaged in a beautiful and
most useful charity. Into tenement-houses and the hot close wards of
city hospitals, true sisters of mercy of the one Catholic church of