ester's gay laugh was infectious.

"I do not," he said. "I have to start as soon as I can see, tramp long
distances in wet woods and gather the violets on my knees, make them
into bunches, and bring them here in water to keep them fresh. I have
another occupation. I only kill time on these, but I would be ashamed to
tell you what I have gotten for them this morning."

"Humph! I'm glad to hear it!" said the woman. "Shame in some form is a
sign of grace. I have no use for a human being without a generous supply
of it. There is a very beautiful dark-eyed girl in the house, and I will
take two bunches for her. How much are they?"

"I have only three remaining," said the Harvester. "Would you like to
allow her to make her own selection?"

"When I'm giving things I usually take my choice. I want that, and that
one."

"As my stock is so nearly out, I'll make the two for twenty," said the
Harvester. "Won't you accept the last one from me, because you remind me
just a little of my mother?"

"I will indeed," said she. "Thank you very much! I shall love to have
them as dearly as any of the girls. I used to gather them when I was a
child, but I almost never see the blue ones any more, and I don't know
as I ever expected to see a yellow violet again as long as I live. Where
did you get them?"

"In my woods," said the Harvester. "You see I grow several members of
the viola pedata family, bird's foot, snake, and wood violet, and three
of the odorata, English, marsh, and sweet, for our big drug houses. They
use the flowers in making delicate tests for acids and alkalies.
The entire plant, flower, seed, leaf, and root, goes into different
remedies. The beds seed themselves and spread, so I have more than
I need for the chemists, and I sell a few. I don't use the white and
yellow in my business; I just grow them for their beauty. I also sell my
surplus lilies of the valley. Would you like to order some of them for
your house or more violets for to-morrow?"

"Well bless my soul! Do you mean to tell me that lilies of the valley
are medicine?"

The Harvester laughed.

"I grow immense beds of them in the woods on the banks of Loon Lake,"
he said. "They are the convallaris majallis of the drug houses and I
scarcely know what the weak-hearted people would do without them. I use
large quantities in trade, and this season I am selling a few because
people so love them."

"Lilies in medicine; well dear me! Are roses good for our inn