142 WILD FLOWERS OF SCOTLAND 



crusting the garden with salt, and destroying the 

 promise for the year." 



" You have great storms, then ? " I inquired. 



" Storms ! I should think we have," and the 

 fun came dancing back to her face. " There are 

 days when, if you open your mouth to the wind- 

 ward, you must turn round before you can get it 

 shut again." 



The idea of the wind keeping the mouth open, 

 as it might do an umbrella, was certainly original. 

 The only improvement were to carry the parallel 

 further, and suggest the blowing inside out. 



" But I love Orkney," she went on, with the 

 northern light in her eye. " You are too late for 

 the finest and rarest of our wild flowers. You say 

 that you have never been here in the spring ? 

 Then you must come." 



And she spoke with much enthusiasm of the 

 beauty of the vernal squill ; and of the delightful 

 surprise, at the close of winter, of going out some 

 morning when the sun was shining through and 

 glorifying a veil of moist air, to find it already 

 scattered far and wide over the landscape. 



" You, who are so rich in wild flowers, will laugh 

 at my innocence," she said, with an assumption of 

 humility. 



