Jill: A Flower Girl

"She's a werry purty creter," said old Peters. "I don't go for to deny it, Silas, she's rare and purty. But what ails her, man? Do yer think as she has given yer her young affec...

The little kitchen was a picture of brightness and neatness; the small stove was polished like a looking-glass. Jill placed a coarse white cloth on the table, drew it up to her...

Jill had a very successful morning with her flowers; they were the envy and admiration of all the other flower women. Even Molly Maloney felt as if she must indulge in a fit of...

Susy Carter was one of those self-reliant people who are not over-troubled with conscience. Her nerves were in excellent order. She did not consider herself _vain_, but she was...

Silas Lynn left Covent Garden at an early hour, and went home. He had a very neat little waggon for conveying his goods to town, and he sat in it now, in the pleasant sunshine a...

Jill awoke presently, rubbed her eyes and sat up in bed. A sensation of gladness was all over her, but she could not at first understand what it meant. Her sleep had been so str...

Soon after this Jill went home. She carried an empty basket, and what was far more unusual, a pocket destitute of the smallest coin. The few pence she had earned during this unl...

The light was streaming full into the little bedroom. It was clean and fresh, for Jill would permit nothing else. There were no cobwebs to be seen on the walls, and the floor wa...

Jill never remembered afterwards how she spent that long day. She had no flowers to sell, for she had taken her basket empty from the market, leaving those that were over from t...

"Yer to come down looking as peart as you can. Jill," he said to her. "The folks in Newbridge beats all folks livin' for contrariness. They think that God Almighty did right whe...

Notwithstanding the uses of adversity, it is astonishing how well prosperity _agrees_ with some people. It has much the same sort of effect on them that the sun has on fruit and...

The boys came in presently, and Jill and her mother went to bed. The young girl's head scarcely touched her pillow when she was in the land of dreams, but the older woman stayed...

Quite early in the afternoon Jill returned to the humble little flat in Howard's Buildings. She had felt nervous and excited until she got there. Nat might be waiting for her. N...

"Well, I am surprised to see you at the market this morning, Silas Lynn," said Molly Maloney, who had come to stock her basket with fresh flowers, and who came across Lynn stand...

The London season was at its height. The weather was warm and sultry, the days were at their longest. The shops were gay with beautiful dresses, richly trimmed bonnets, gloves,...

Even the humblest abode can look gay and bright when it is decked all over with flowers, and when the windows look out on gay gardens and blooming plants, and lake in also dista...

It seemed but a moment later that Poll opened her eyes, to find herself lying on a hard horse-hair sofa close to an open window. The chemist was bending over her, holding her wr...

Jill pulled her mother's hand fiercely inside her arm. The presence of the angry, upright girl had a sobering effect on the older women. A dim sense of shame and distress was st...

"I ha' redd up the whole place, master," he said, "and brushed the path from the wicket up to the porch and I ha' watered the flowers, and I think there ain't nothink more to be...

The moon and the stars have some advantages which mankind in times of perplexity would gladly possess. For instance, they can take a bird's-eye view of events; from their lofty...