Helen led the group of summer flowers. As "Summer" she wore bunches of
all the flowers in the garden, arranged harmoniously as in one of the
old-fashioned bouquets her grandmother had spoken of in the morning. It
had been a problem to keep all these blossoms fresh for it would not be
possible for her to wear artificial flowers. The Ethels had found a
solution, however, when they brought home one day from the drug store
several dozen tiny glass bottles. Around the neck of each they fastened
a bit of wire and bent it into a hook which fitted into an eye sewed on
to the old but pretty white frock which Helen was sacrificing to the
good cause. After she had put on the dress each one of these bottles was
fitted with its flowers which had been picked some time before and
revived in warm water and salt so that they would not wilt.
"These bottles make me think of a story our French teacher told us
once," Helen laughed as she stood carefully to be made into a bouquet.
"There was a real Cyrano de Bergerac who lived in the 17th century. He
told a tale supposed to be about his own adventures in which he said
that once he fastened about himself a number of phials filled with dew.
The heat of the sun attracted them as it does the clouds and raised him
high in the air. When he found that he was not going to alight on the
moon as he had thought, he broke some of the phials and descended to
earth again.
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