“Why! you have made quite an addition to the house since I was here last,” said Gertrude, as she stood to admire the blossoms.

“No, not an addition, only a little alteration,” said Maggie.  “Don’t you remember this old porch where father used to smoke his pipe of an evening?  Well, in the spring, when Joe was making the glass frames to force the early vegetables for market, we got him to put a glass frame on each side of the porch.  They are not very neatly done, I admit, but they answer the purpose very well.  Then these few shelves were easily fitted up, and this is the result,” she added.

“I missed your flowers, from the window seats, and wondered if you had found them too much trouble,” said Gertrude, fingering some sweet-smelling leaves near her.  “Well, you see, there were so many of them that it was quite a task to look after them when they were spread over the house.  In the winter we don’t mind the trouble so much, as there is so little left of ‘green things growing’ to rest the eyes upon that we find them quite a pleasure.  In the bright days of spring there is so much to see and do out-of doors that we thought we would collect them here.  Of course, we still keep the grandmother’s window full of blossoms, for she loves them so dearly.”

“It is a pity that the porch is not on the south side of the house,” said Dexie.  “I should think it would be quite chilly here when the wind blows.”

“So it is,” said Lizzie, with a smile, “and I suppose you think we might have chosen a better situation for our little conservatory when this many-sided house has better spots to select from, but it was not the flowers alone we were thinking of.”

“Well, what else were you thinking of, if I may ask?” said Gertrude.

Lizzie blushed slightly as she replied: 

“This is the door that mother uses to go in and out when about her dairy work—­that is the dairy under the trees at the end of the path—­and father likes to sit here and watch her about her work of an evening while he smokes his pipe; and when she has done her work she will often sit here and rest a few minutes with him; but there is not much of a prospect from this door, except the waters of the Gulf, so we thought we would put our flowers here and she could see and smell them when she went in and out.  She might be too busy to stop and notice them particularly, but they are something pleasant to rest her eyes on when she is through with the milk.  I always thought that the restless waves made her think of my brother who was lost at sea, but now I fancy that the flowers rest her, though perhaps it is only fancy, after all.”

Dexie’s thoughts flew back to her own mother lying listlessly on her sofa so much of the time.  How much had she ever done to change the current of her mother’s thought?  She made a mental memorandum to try the effect of a few bright blooms in her mother’s window as soon as she returned home.