and then our own name so she'd know who gave her the violets. I'd like
to give her violets myself," she added.
But Rosamond had a more practical suggestion still.
"Let's get the little wooden tags that the florists use and put on them
the name of the flower, and the giver's name, and then we could tie
another little paper tag to them with the rhyme on it."
This was received with applause and the resolution was put to the vote
and carried enthusiastically. Judith looked admiringly at Nancy and
Rosamond as the meeting broke up and wondered how they could think of
such clever things, and was surprised and delighted after the meeting
when Nancy slipped her arm through hers and whispered:
"Bully for you, Judy; I don't know how you think of such clever things."
Next day there was another Form meeting and a committee was
appointed--Judy was glad that she was chosen--to get permission to go
downtown and enquire prices at the florists. Five B and Five C, whose
Presidents applied to Nancy for ideas, decided to further the scheme by
buying fruit bushes, raspberries, strawberries, currants, gooseberries,
and young fruit trees, and Miss Watson, who was Five C's Form Mistress,
proved a very useful ally, for a distant relative was a partner in one
of the biggest wholesale florist establishments and she offered to take
the committee there and get the plants at the lowest possible rates. Her
sudden popularity and the feeling of importance which pervaded her at
each of the many consultations during the next few days (for it turned
out that Miss Watson had been brought up in a beautiful old garden at
home in Scotland) were to remain delectable memories for many a long
day.
A 'phone message brought wonderful catalogues from MacIver & Watson, and
for a day or two the Fifth Form presented a very studious appearance.
Groups of two or three might be seen in sitting-room or playroom and
out-of-doors on the quadrangle poring over books, but the interested
teachers who observed this phenomenon also noticed that the books they
earnestly perused were richly and gaudily illustrated.
Judith had to give up her cherished notion of a climbing rose, because
the rest of the "Jolly Susan" were determined to give Canterbury bells.
The proposal had come from Jane. "They're blue and that's the sailor's
colour and bells are nautical too." So Judith gave in gracefully and the
five of them pooled their contributions and stipulated what they wanted,
a row of Canterbury bells in the perennial border. Nancy was strong on
perennials. "We don't want flowers that will die off," she said
emphatically, "but something that will come up every year."
"Won't it be nice!" said Judith. "One spring morning the Major will come
in to breakfast with the cheerful news, 'Spring has come, my dear, the
Peggy Forrest (her violets, you know) are coming up under the birch
tree. Come and see them.'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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