THE BLUE BELLS 35 



attention of the least observant, or fail to awaken 

 the enthusiasm of the least impressionable. Every 

 schoolboy on the Saturday half-holiday visits its 

 haunts for the nests of the rarest birds, and gathers 

 handfuls to scatter on the way home. Every 

 country maiden from the surrounding cotter 

 houses pushes it among her locks. 



" My little girl with the golden hair and the soft 

 eyes, what do you like ? " " To be among the wood 

 hyacinths." 



Beyond the margin of the wood, the hyacinths 

 flow over the bank among the brambles and trail- 

 ing roses. The white-throat and rose linnet weave 

 their nests among the scented twigs ; and the 

 yellow-hammer builds among the grasses, where 

 the long pleasant days of sitting may be shaded by 

 the bells. 



A fortnight or so after the blue hyacinths have 

 faded, say about the end of June, when already 

 every egg has been chipped, and the birds are busy 

 feeding their second brood amid the thickening 

 undergrowth, a second flower of Scotland makes 

 its appearance. 



It is no longer vase-shaped, but bell-shaped ; 

 indeed, it is one of the true bells, with all its petals 

 joined into one. If there is anything lovelier than 



