"But you can easily imagine that my pride and delight in them is much disturbed by anxiety concerning their future.

Latterly, I have thought a good deal about closing business and taking them to France to reside.

But when men get to be so old as I am, the process of being transplanted to a foreign soil seems onerous.

If it were as well for _them_, I should greatly prefer returning to my native New England." "They are tropical flowers," observed Alfred.

"There is nothing Northern in their natures." "Yes, they are tropical flowers," rejoined the father, "and my wish is to place them in perpetual sunshine.