Transcriber's Note: Obvious printer errors, have been silently corrected. For clarity, have added new paragraphs with respect to dialogue within paragraphs. The name Hillard and Hilliard have been uniformly changed to Hillard. Corrected incorrect usages of 'its' and 'it's.' All other inconsistencies (i. e. The inconsistent spellings—sombre/somber, gray/grey, hyphen/no hyphen) have been left as they were in the original.
PART FIRST—THE BLOOM
THE COTTON BLOSSOM
The cotton blossom is the only flower that is born in the shuttle of a sunbeam and dies in a loom.
It is the most beautiful flower that grows, and needs only to become rare to be priceless—only to die to be idealized.