Story-Tell Lib | Page 3

the shet-up part so slicked up
and nice, with nobody never seem' it? Folks has different names for 'em,
dumb foxgloves, blind genshuns, and all that, but I allers call 'em the
shet-up posies.
Well, 't was one o' that kind o' posy I was goin' to tell you about. 'Twas
one o' the shet-uppest and the buddiest of all on 'em, all blacky-blue
and straight up and down, and shet up fast and tight. Nobody'd ever
dream't was pretty inside. And the funniest thing, it didn't know 'twas
so itself! It thought 'twas a mistake somehow, thought it had oughter
been a posy, and was begun for one, but wa'n't finished, and 'twas
terr'ble unhappy. It knew there was pretty posies all 'round there,
goldenrod and purple daisies and all; and their inside was the right side,
and they was proud of it, and held it open, and showed the pretty lining,
all soft and nice with the little fuzzy yeller threads standin' up, with
little balls on their tip ends. And the shet-up posy felt real bad; not
mean and hateful and begrudgin', you know, and wantin' to take away
the nice part from the other posies, but sorry, and kind o' 'shamed.
"Oh, deary me!" she says,--I most forgot to say 'twas a girl

posy,--"deary me, what a humly, skimpy, awk'ard thing I be! I ain't
more 'n half made; there ain't no nice, pretty lining inside o' me, like
them other posies; and on'y my wrong side shows, and that's jest plain
and common. I can't chirk up folks like the goldenrod and daisies does.
Nobody won't want to pick me and carry me home. I ain't no good to
anybody, and I never shall be."
So she kep' on, thinkin' these dreadful sorry thinkin's, and most wishin'
she'd never been made at all. You know 't wa'n't jest at fust she felt this
way. Fust she thought she was a bud, like lots o' buds all 'round her,
and she lotted on openin' like they did. But when the days kep' passin'
by, and all the other buds opened out, and showed how pretty they was,
and she didn't open, why, then she got terr'ble discouraged; and I don't
wonder a mite.
She'd see the dew a-layin' soft and cool on the other posies' faces, and
the sun a-shinin' warm on 'em as they held 'em up, and sometimes she'd
see a butterfly come down and light on 'em real soft, and kind o' put his
head down to 'em, 's if he was kissin' 'em, and she thought 'twould be
powerful nice to hold her face up to all them pleasant things. But she
couldn't.
But one day, afore she'd got very old, 'fore she'd dried up or fell off, or
anything like that, she see somebody comin' along her way. 'Twas a
man, and he was lookin' at all the posies real hard and partic'lar, but he
wasn't pickin' any of 'em. Seems 's if he was lookin' for somethin'
diff'rent from what he see, and the poor little shet-up posy begun to
wonder what he was arter. Bimeby she braced up, and she asked him
about it in her shet-up, whisp'rin' voice. And says he, the man says:
"I'm a-pickin' posies. That's what I work at most o' the time. 'T ain't for
myself," he says, "but the one I work for. I'm on'y his help. I run
errands and do chores for him, and it's a partic'lar kind o' posy he's sent
me for to-day." "What for does he want 'em?" says the shet-up posy.
"Why, to set out in his gardin," the man says. "He's got the beautif'lest
gardin you never see, and I pick posies for 't." "Deary me," thinks she
to herself, "I jest wish he'd pick me. But I ain't the kind, I know." And
then she says, so soft he can't hardly hear her, "What sort o' posies is it

you're arter this time?" "Well," says the man, "it's a dreadful sing'lar
order I've got to-day. I got to find a posy that's handsomer inside than 't
is outside, one that folks ain't took no notice of here, 'cause 'twas kind
o' humly and queer to look at, not knowin' that inside 'twas as
handsome as any posy on the airth. Seen any o' that kind?" says the
man.
Well, the shet-up posy was dreadful worked up. "Deary dear!" she says
to herself, "now if they'd on'y finished me off inside! I'm the right kind
outside, humly and queer enough, but there's nothin' worth lookin' at
inside,--I'm certin sure o' that." But she didn't say this nor anything else
out loud, and bimeby, when the man had waited, and didn't get any
answer, he begun to look at