Flowers for a pound

Text 1: Special Price, by Yvonne Castellane

An original short story extract.

The flower stall outside the station was busy for Mother’s Day, buckets of tulips and daffodils lined up along the pavement. The boy waited at the edge of the queue for a long time, letting grown-ups go in front of him. When it was finally his turn, he opened his fist on the counter: a pound coin, two twenties and some coppers. ‘What can I get for this?’ he asked. Gwen looked at the coins. She looked at the roses, which were eight pounds a bunch. Then she took three daffodils from a bucket, added a sprig of eucalyptus that she would have thrown away at closing, and wrapped them in pink tissue with a ribbon. She took only the pound coin, and pushed the rest back across the counter. ‘Don’t tell anyone,’ she said, ‘or they’ll all want my special price.’

Explain two ways Gwen helps the boy.