186 LITERARY PILGRIMAGES 



the Civil War, and of countless un-uni formed 

 battles of daily life before and since. 



All the morning of Memorial Day children, and 

 often their elders, glean from field and wood, 

 from garden and greenhouse, flowers for the 

 decking of graves, and later the thinning ranks of 

 Grand Army men march to martial music and 

 place upon the graves of dead comrades the flag 

 for which they fought and garlands of remem- 

 brance. For these the mowing fields give gladly 

 the white and gold of their buttercups and daisies, 

 the hillsides the blue of their violets, the wood- 

 lands the feathery white and glossy green of the 

 smilacina. It always seems as if these blossomed 

 their best for the occasion. But beyond all other 

 flowers in profusion and beauty for the ceremony 

 is the lilac. This shrub, I am convinced, knows 

 that its best service to man is in garlands for 

 Memorial Day, and rarely does it fail in the ser- 

 vice. There come years in which the spring is 

 cold and backward and blossoming shrubs are 

 weeks behind their accustomed time of bloom, but 

 the lilacs press bravely forward, hopeful even at 

 the very last moment, and manage to put forth 



