CHAPTER VIll. 



THE EVENING PRIMROSE 



1 The pale primrose' of early spring has found a 

 Aureate in the bard of every age, of every grade. 

 The vernal landscape pictured to our mind's eye, 

 would be incomplete without it. Who can fancy a 

 green bank, beginning to shoot forth its tender blade 

 after shaking off the feathery tufts of snow, with- 

 out including in the ideal sketch that delicate 

 flower which rises on its slender stalk to grace the 

 slant, and peer into the narrow channel beneath, as 

 if watching the gradual withdrawal of winter's 

 now liquified mantle ! 



But the primrose of spring has a younger sister 

 appearing later in the year ; one who wears her tint, 

 and borrows her name, and inherits her sweet hu- 

 mility, though towering in stature far above the 

 lowly prototype. The primrose of evening comes 

 not forth to share in the general competition of 

 her many tinted neighbours : she keeps her beau- 

 tiful petals wrapped closely in their mantle through 

 the day, nor unfolds them until other flowers have 



