30 NEW HAMPSHIRE 



to my taste. The very sight of them gladdens 

 me like sunshine. But before I get out of the 

 garden, as I am in no haste to do (if it was at- 

 tractive this morning, it is doubly so now, after 

 those miles of snowbanks), I am near to chang- 

 ing my mind ; for suddenly, as my eye follows 

 the border of the road, it falls upon a small blue 

 violet, the first of that color that I have noticed 

 since my arrival at Moosilauke. It must be my 

 long-desired SelMrldi, I say to myself, and down 

 I go to look at it. Yes, it is not leafy-stemmed, 

 the petals are not bearded, and the leaves are un- 

 like any I have ever seen. I take it up, root and 

 all, and search carefully till I find one more. If 

 it is Selkirkii, as I feel sure it is, 1 then I am 

 happy. This is the one species of our eastern North 

 American violets that I have never picked. It 

 completes my set. And it is especially good to 

 find it here, where I was not in the least expect- 

 ing it. With the two specimens in my pocket I 

 trudge the remaining two miles in high spirits. 

 The violets are no newer to me than the liver- 

 wort specimens on Mount Cushman were, but 

 they have the incomparable advantage of things 

 long looked for, things for the lack of which, 

 so to speak, a pigeonhole in the mind has stood 



1 And so it was ; for though I felt sure, I wanted to be sure, 

 and submitted it to an expert. 



