PATH THROUGH THE CORNFIELDS 129 



merry stampede, moderated by the remembrance 

 of their recent transgression. 



" Gowans ! Go wans ! " is the cry. True, they call 

 other flowers gowans as well ; in the country they 

 have general names for similar things ; but this is 

 the true one. 



Golden they are ! Golden they look in the 

 autumn sunshine and amid the paler shades ! 

 Chrysanthemums ! Flowers of gold ! Golden rays ! 

 Golden disc, nearly two inches across of rarest, 

 richest gold ! No need to hurry ; there are plenty 

 for all. " Far too many," says the farmer, relapsing 

 into bad humour. But what care these heedless 

 minds, these children of the senses, for questions of 

 profit and loss ! 



Weeds are flowers in their wrong place. Pity, 

 then, that such glorious flowers should be in their 

 wrong place, and that war to the death should be 

 waged against them in the interests of modern 

 cultivation. The fields of Germany are brighter 

 than those of Scotland. Those of the islands and 

 other outlying parts of the land are gardens in 

 comparison with the unbroken yellow of many of 

 our fields. 



They are not in the wrong place, as far as the 

 fitness of their surroundings goes. Nowhere could 

 9 



