"Oh, dear! I wish I didn't have to be one;" and Charlie began to cry. "I'll wear a big stone on top of my head."
"I am afraid it is too late. You are as tall as Granny now."
Hal gained slowly. All this time he was thinking what he should do? for he had a presentiment that he might never be very strong again. No more working around on farms; and, though there were some sedentary trades in cities, he would meet with no chance to attain to them. So he must have the green-house.
By spring he was able to go about pretty well. But he looked white as a ghost, quite unlike the round rosy Hal of other days.
"Kit," said he, "you'll have to be my right-hand man this summer. Maybe by another Christmas we might have the violin."
"O Hal! I'd work from morning till night," and the eager eyes were luminous.
"Well, we'll see."
Charlie was seized with a helpful fit also. After the garden was ploughed, they all planted and hoed and weeded; and, as it was an early season, they had some quite forward vegetables.
One day Hal went over to Salem, and invested a few dollars in tuberoses, besides purchasing some choice flower-seeds. Then he stopped into a small place where he had noticed cut-flowers, and began to inquire whether they ever bought any.
"All I can get," said the man. "Flowers are coming to be the rage. People think they can't have weddings or funerals without them."