A Child's Gift

I was reading a blog of another person who spent many years in the town where I grew up earlier today and it caused me to remember something with a smile.
He was talking about picking Lady Slipper flowers, a wild orchid that is protected in the state of New York. Perhaps back in the years he picked them they weren't protected. I remember picking one that I found as a child. I was told after I picked it that it was against the law to pick them. I was terrified of being arrested for picking a flower. I was all of about 9 years old at the time.
I had just wanted to give my mother something I thought was so pretty and I had never seen one before. The usual bouquets that were picked for my mom almost every day they were in bloom were made up of wild violets with their delicate stems and dandelions with their yellow petals.
Mom would smile at each bouquet brought to her and put them in a little jelly jar or a shrimp coctail glass with a little water. She got many such bouquets and usually several times a day as there were five children of varying ages bringing them to her.
I can still see the bouquets put on the windowsill over the kitchen sink. They were picked with such love and desire to show that love. It was a child's gift to a loving mother.