152 ABOUT MOSSES AND LICHENS. [CHAP. 1X. 
simplest, sweetest offices of grace? They will not be 
cathered, like the flowers, for chaplet or love-token ; 
but of these the wild bird will make its nest, and the 
wearied child its pillow. 
“ And, as they are the earth’s first mercy, so they 
are its last gift to us. When all other service is vain, 
from plant and tree, the soft mosses and grey lichen 
take up their watch by the headstone. The woods, 
the blossoms, the gift-bearing grasses, have done their 
parts for a time, but these do service for ever. Trees 
for the builder's yard, flowers for the bride’s chamber, 
corn for the granary, moss for the grave. 
“Vet as in one sense the humblest, in another they 
are the most honoured of the earth-children. Un- 
fading as motionless, the worm frets them not, and 
the autumn wastes them not. Strong in lowliness, 
they neither blanch in heat nor pine in frost. To 
them, slow-fingered, constant-hearted, is entrusted the 
weaving of the dark eternal tapestries of the hills; to 
them, slow-pencilled, iris-eyed, the tender framing of | 
their endless imagery. Sharing the stillness of the 
unimpassioned rock, they share also its endurance; 
and while the winds of departing spring scatter the 
white hawthorn blossom like drifted snow, and sum- 
mer dims on the parched meadow the drooping of its 
cowslip-gold—far above, among the mountains, the 
silver lichen-spots rest, star-like, on the stone; and 
the gathering orange stain upon the edge of yonder 
western peak reflects the sunset of a thousand years.” 
= i a ica “ iis se ani 
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