22 FLOWERS AND FOLKS. 
much the blacker, by laying them liable to 
the additional charge of hypocrisy. The 
question is a nice one, and I gladly leave it 
for subtler casuists than I to settle. 
‘How refreshing to turn from all these, 
from the thistle and the bramble, yea, even. 
from the rose itself, to gentle spirits like the 
violet and anemone, the arbutus and _ hepat- 
ica! These wage no war. They are of the 
original Society of Friends. Who will may 
spoil them without hurt. Their defense is 
with their Maker. I wonder whether any- 
body ever thinks of such flowers as repre- 
sentative of any order of grown people, or 
whether to everybody else they are forever 
children, as'I find, on thinking of it, they 
have always been to me. Lowly and _ trust- 
ful, sweet and frail, “of such is the king- 
dom of heaven.” They pass away without 
losing their innocence. re the first heats 
of summer they are gone. . 
Yet the autumn, too, has its delicate 
blooms, though they are overshadowed and, 
_ as it were, put out of countenance by the 
coarser growths which must be said to char- 
acterize the harvest season. Nothing that 
May puts into her lap is more exquisite than 
