only the very lightest reading was permissible. But the comments and the explanations made by Julia and Amy when she read with them, their allusion to books, and to authors with whom she had no acquaintance piqued Brenda to such an extent, that she ceased to pride herself on her ignorance of what she called “deep books.” As a matter of fact, when a girl has reached this point, she is far on the road to wisdom. Only the girl who thinks her own way absolutely better than that of any one else is in danger of making no progress in knowledge.
Nora’s stray words about the Flower Mission had borne good fruit in Brenda’s mind. Although the season was rather far advanced before she did much work in the matter of collecting and arranging flowers for the poor, still, at Amy’s suggestion, the flowers were freshly gathered on the mornings when the reading class met. Then, while one of the trio read, the other two arranged them in suitable bunches. Instead of going to the regular Flower Mission, these flowers from Rockley were sent to one of the Settlement houses, as it was always possible for some of the residents there to distribute them as soon as they arrived. Some such arrangement was necessary, as the girls, in spite of their zeal, were not able to have the hamper ready at precisely the same hour on given days of the week. Amy was of great help in this work, because in the neighborhood of her house were more wild flowers than immediately around Rockley. Flowers from the garden were not abundant in September, for this was the month in which the most of their flower work was
