2.—Wallflowers

These flowers are honest, brave things—just what you would expect from their name. They grow best on walls and ruins, in dry barren spots, where no other flower could find a living. Their flowers are brown, of the color of faithfulness, like the eyes of a collie dog. They are hardy, wiry, and contented. You may neglect them as much as you like, but they flourish. They have a heart like oak, and a constitution like iron. Wallflowers are the little brown friends of duty.
I think that God has written this lesson in them— “Be faithful, be honest, be brave, and do your duty.”
The difference between being bad and being good is just this; the bad man does what he likes, the good man does what he ought.
A camel driver once said to his camel, “Which do you prefer, to go up hill or down hill?”
The camel replied, “If I go up hill, shall I have to carry anything?”
“Yes.”
“Shall I have to carry anything, if I go down hill?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I don’t mind whether it’s up hill or down hill, for I shall have to carry something, either way.”
The wallflower always carries a cross. It belongs to the cross-bearing family. Look at its brown petals, they are in the form of a cross.
Some people think that all heroes are in red, like soldiers. But I know heroes who just go stumping along to their work in plain brown corduroys, every day of the week, in rain or sunshine. I know heroes within four walls who do the dullest duties and seldom get a word of praise. There is more heroism in the plain brown clothes of the friends of duty than ever we dream of. “Be faithful, be honest, be true, and do your duty.”