A DENOMINATIONAL GARDBN
"Oh, mickle is the powerful grace that lies
In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities;
For naught so vile that on the earth doth live
But to the earth some special good doth give."
The following Sunday being decidedly cooler, Lovey Mary was started
off to Miss Viny's in quest of yellowroot. She had protested that she
was not sick, but Miss Hazy, backed by Mrs. Wiggs, had insisted.
"If you git down sick, it would be a' orful drain on me," was Miss
Hazy's final argument, and the point was effective.
As Lovey Mary trudged along the railroad-tracks, she was unconscious
of the pleasant changes of scenery. The cottages became less frequent,
and the bare, dusty commons gave place to green fields. Here and there
a tree spread its branches to the breezes, and now and then a snatch
of bird song broke the stillness. But Lovey Mary kept gloomily on her
way, her eyes fixed on the cross-ties. The thoughts surging through
her brain were dark enough to obscure even the sunshine. For three
nights she had cried herself to sleep, and the "nervous sensations"
were getting worse instead of better.
"Just two months since Kate was hurt," she said to herself. "Soon as
she gets out the hospital she'll be trying to find us again. I believe
she was coming to the factory looking for me when she got run over.
She'd just like to take Tommy away and send me to jail. Oh, I hate her
worse all the time! I wish she was--"
The wish died on her lips, for she suddenly realized that it might
already have been fulfilled. Some one coughed near by, and she started
guiltily.
"You seem to be in a right deep steddy," said a voice on the other
side of the fence.
Lovey Mary glanced up and saw a queer-looking old woman smiling at her
quizzically. A pair of keen eyes twinkled under bushy brows, and a
fierce little beard bristled from her chin. When she smiled it made
Lovey Mary think of a pebble dropped in a pool, for the wrinkles went
rippling off from her mouth in ever-widening circles until they were
lost in the gray hair under her broad-brimmed hat.
"Are you Miss Viny?" asked Lovey Mary, glancing at the old-fashioned
flower-garden beyond.
"Well, I been that fer sixty year'; I ain't heared of no change,"
answered the old lady.
"Miss Hazy sent me after some yellowroot," said Lovey Mary,
listlessly.
"Who fer?"
"Me."
Miss Viny took a pair of large spectacles from her pocket, put them on
the tip of her nose, and looked over them critically at Lovey Mary.
"Stick out yer tongue."
Lovey Mary obeyed.
"Uh-huh. It's a good thing I looked. You don't no more need yallerroot
than a bumblebee. You come in here on the porch an' tell me what's
ailin' you, an' I'll do my own prescriptin'."
Lovey Mary followed her up the narrow path, that ran between a mass of
flowers. Snowy oleanders, yellow asters, and purple phlox crowded
together in a space no larger than Miss Hazy's front yard. Lovey Mary
forgot her troubles in sheer delight in seeing so many flowers
together.
"Do you love 'em, too?" asked Miss Viny, jerking her thumb over her
shoulder.
"I guess I would if I had a chance. I never saw them growing out of
doors like this. I always had to look at them through the store
windows."
"Oh, law, don't talk to me 'bout caged-up flowers! I don't b'lieve in
shuttin' a flower up in a greenhouse any more 'n I b'lieve in shuttin'
myself up in one church."
Lovey Mary remembered what Miss Hazy had told her of Miss Viny's
pernicious religious views, and she tried to change the subject. But
Miss Viny was started upon a favorite theme and was not to be
diverted.
"This here is a denominational garden, an' I got every congregation I
ever heared of planted in it. I ain't got no faverite bed. I keer fer
'em all jes alike. When you come to think of it, the same rule holds
good in startin' a garden as does in startin' a church. You first got
to steddy what sort of soil you goin' to work with, then you have to
sum up all the things you have to fight ag'inst. Next you choose what
flowers are goin' to hold the best places. That's a mighty important
question in churches, too, ain't it? Then you go to plantin', the
thicker the better, fer in both you got to allow fer a mighty fallin'
off. After that you must take good keer of what you got, an' be sure
to plant something new each year. Once in a while some of the old
growths has to be thinned out, and the new upstarts an' suckers has to
be pulled up. Now, if you'll come out here I'll show you round."
She started down the path, and Lovey Mary, somewhat overwhelmed by
this oration, followed obediently.
"These here are the Baptists," said Miss Viny, waving her hand toward
a bed of heliotrope and flags. "They want lots of water; like to be
wet clean through. They sorter set off to theyselves an' tend to their
own business; don't keer much 'bout minglin' with the other flowers."
Lovey Mary did not understand very clearly what Miss Viny was talking
about, but she was glad to follow her in the winding paths, where new
beauties were waiting at every turn.
"These is geraniums, ain't they? One of the girls had one, once, in a
flower-pot when she was sick."
"Yes," said Miss Viny; "they're Methodist. They fall from grace an'
has to be revived; they like lots of encouragement in the way of sun
an' water. These phlox are Methodist, too; no set color, easy to grow,
hardy an' vigorous. Pinchin' an' cuttin' back the shoots makes it
flower all the better; needs new soil every few years; now ain't that
Methodist down to the ground?"
"Are there any Presbyterians?" asked Lovey Mary, beginning to grasp
Miss Viny's meaning.
"Yes, indeed; they are a good, old, reliable bed. Look at all these
roses an' tiger-lilies an' dahlias; they all knew what they was goin'
to be afore they started to grow. They was elected to it, an' they'll
keep on bein' what they started out to be clean to the very end."
"I know about predestination," cried Lovey Mary, eagerly. "Miss Bell
used to tell us all those things."
"Who did?"
Lovey Mary flushed crimson. "A lady I used to know," she said
evasively.
Miss Viny crossed the garden, and stopped before a bed of stately
lilies and azaleas. "These are 'Piscopals," she explained. "Ain't they
tony? Jes look like they thought their bed was the only one in the
garden. Somebody said that a lily didn't have no pore kin among the
flowers. It ain't no wonder they 'most die of dignity. They're like
the 'Piscopals in more ways 'n one; both hates to be disturbed, both
likes some shade, an'"--confidentially--"both air pretty pernickity.
But to tell you the truth, ain't nothin' kin touch 'em when it comes
to beauty! I think all the other beds is proud of 'em, if you'd come
to look into it. Why, look at weddin's an' funerals! Don't all the
churches call in the 'Piscopals an' the lilies on both them
occasions?"
Lovey Mary nodded vaguely.
"An' here," continued Miss Viny, "are the Unitarians. You may be
s'prised at me fer havin' 'em in here, 'long with the orthodox
churches; but if the sun an' the rain don't make no distinction, I
don't see what right I got to put 'em on the other side of the fence.
These first is sweet-william, as rich in bloom as the Unitarian is in
good works, a-sowin' theyselves constant, an' every little plant a-
puttin' out a flower."
"Ain't there any Catholics?" asked Lovey Mary.
"Don't you see them hollyhawks an' snowballs an' laylacs? All of them
are Catholics, takin' up lots of room an' needin' the prunin'-knife
pretty often, but bringin' cheer and brightness to the whole garden
when it needs it most. Yes, I guess you'd have trouble thinkin' of any
sect I ain't got planted. Them ferns over in the corner is Quakers. I
ain't never seen no Quakers, but they tell me that they don't b'lieve
in flowerin' out; that they like coolness an' shade an' quiet, an' are
jes the same the year round. These colea plants are the apes; they are
all things to all men, take on any color that's round 'em, kin be the
worst kind of Baptists or Presbyterians, but if left to theyselves
they run back to good-fer-nothin's. This here everlastin' is one of
these here Christians that's so busy thinkin' 'bout dyin' that he
fergits to live."
Miss Viny chuckled as she crumbled the dry flower in her fingers.
"See how different this is," she said, plucking a sprig of lemon-
verbena. "This an' the mint an' the sage an' the lavender is all true
Christians; jes by bein' touched they give out a' influence that makes
the whole world a sweeter place to live in. But, after all, they can't
all be alike! There's all sorts of Christians: some stands fer
sunshine, some fer shade; some fer beauty, some fer use; some up high,
some down low. There's jes one thing all the flowers has to unite in
fightin' ag'inst--that's the canker-worm, Hate. If it once gits in a
plant, no matter how good an' strong that plant may be, it eats right
down to its heart."
"How do you get it out, Miss Viny?" asked Lovey Mary, earnestly.
"Prayer an' perseverance. If the Christian'll do his part, God'll do
his'n. You see, I'm tryin' to be to these flowers what God is to his
churches. The sun, which answers to the Sperrit, has to shine on 'em
all, an' the rain, which answers to God's mercy, has to fall on 'em
all. I jes watch 'em, an' plan fer 'em, an' shelter 'em, an' love 'em,
an' if they do their part they're bound to grow. Now I'm goin' to cut
you a nice bo'quet to carry back to the Cabbage Patch."
So engrossed were the two in selecting and arranging the flowers that
neither thought of the yellowroot or its substitute. Nevertheless, as
Lovey Mary tramped briskly back over the railroad-ties with her burden
of blossoms, she bore a new thought in her heart which was destined to
bring about a surer cure than any of Miss Viny's most efficient herbs.