.r 



»-_v i \ ''-%, 



6reat-«6ranbam'0 p06^ 



fervour, being partial, if at all, to those cherished blossoms 

 of good omen. And her heart went out to the young prince 

 of the East singing so sweetly to his Bidasari, for he too 

 chose a flower of good omen when he said to his Httle love,/ 

 "Thou art a jasmine sweet, an antidote to every ill. "^ '^y I 

 Now in addition to being a tender-hearted and lovable 

 person, she is a wise as well and, o' winter nights dotes on the 

 philosophic saws and sayings of old Confucius and smiles her 

 kindly and winning smile over the pretty concepts which he 

 so laboriously collected. Many a time, after the winter had 

 fled and the scent of the marshlands was in the air I have 

 heard her murmiu: with the Shi King: 



" All around the marshes shores are seen 

 \ \ / / Valerian flowers and rushes green." 



just as we might be doing this moment, for here in the 

 hollow both are waving at us, tender rushes and bright 

 valerian, which another philosopher tartly describes in the 

 language of his day as "the calmer of hysterical squirms, " a 

 description which I daresay would startle great-grandam 

 out of her five staid senses. For herself. Biblical associa-\ 

 tions are always of the strongest, and she treasures the 

 valerian as a sacred first cousin of the spikenard, that 

 precious perfiune and ointment of the holy book, and thus 

 she links her cosy garden with the great world outside. Thus 

 she sees the wild hyssop "which springeth from the wall; 

 in every sprig of verbena; and no Druid sitting with sombre 



-cC?' 



^.^ 



