'll have no
berries for dinner, and that would be dreadful." And giving his sister a
kiss, he hurried away again, as happy, I believe, as any boy in that
great city on that pleasant summer day.

"I am so glad, so very, _very_ glad that you have come," said Phemie to
the daisies as soon as he was gone, as she set them on the table, and
gazed at them with tears in her eyes, "and I beg of you to live, dear
daisies. I am a poor weak little girl, and I can sit up but a few hours
each day. But a long while ago I could run about like other little
girls, and I lived in the country, where thousands of daisies grew, and
I have never forgotten them. Mamma was alive then, but she's dead now,
and father left us here a year after she died, and we have never seen
him since. He didn't care for daisies or us. How good of Brother Frank
to bring you to me, daisies! I shall knit so much better and faster, and
earn so much more money, with your bright faces smiling at me. And some
day I shall make a picture of you--I have been trying to paint one from
memory--that shall be almost as pretty as your own dear selves." And she
leaned back against her pillow, singing softly to herself; and while her
fingers plied the knitting-needles, her spirit, led by the spirits of
the meadow flowers, wandered to green fields, and listened to the hum of
the bees and the song of the birds, and grew lighter and happier every
moment. And Frank, coming in quietly at noon, saw her with closed eyes
and clasped hands, and heard her say, "Dear God, a helpless child thanks
Thee for daisies!"

And the daisies all lived, and increased in numbers until the room
overflowed with them. On floor and shelves they bloomed in cracked
pitchers, broken jars, old fruit cans, everything that Frank could find
to fill with them. And Phemie did paint a beautiful picture of them at
last, and through this picture came much good fortune to that garret
home. For Frank, showing it, in his brotherly love and pride, to a kind
gentleman whom he served with papers, was surprised to learn that it was
worth more than his sister knitting lace for three long months could
earn.

And now to end the story. The very prettiest New-Year's card that
appeared to celebrate the birth of 1880 was one on which the New-Year's
greeting was printed on a ribbon encircling the stems of a bunch of
daisies. Those daisies are Phemie's daisies. And the young flower
painter, growing stronger day by day, is the happy