N^\) 



^ 





// 



(lii/:^ 



^f^ 



1be^aerow0 a^^ l)llIocli6 



purple thistle in all its glory, conscious of royal descent. 

 For long centuries it has been the emblem of the mighty 

 Scot and frankly proud of a quartering on the shield of a 

 great empire. Very good type of life is the scratchy thing, , 

 too. Daring itself, and shouting from every thorny stem its\\ 

 *' Nemo me impune lacessit,** it can be impressed only by 

 daring in turn and only by boldness overcome. 



" Tender handed stroke a nettle, \ \ 

 And it stings you for your pains; 

 Grasp it like a man of metal, 

 And it soft as silk remains.' 



^\1 ] 



Yarrow and thistles may command attention but hardly 

 love such as we give to the fragrant clover bordering every 

 quiet path along our way, and should St. Patrick now visit 

 our hillocks green he would find its trefoil leaves ever at 

 hand and quite as prettily adapted to the expounding of the 

 doctrine of the Trinity as the seamrag beloved of Ireland ; but 

 St. Patrick like many other grand old patriarchs is folded in 

 Abraham's bosom, and little enough think we of doctrines or 

 sermons unless we find them in the stones, and slow enough 

 are we to draw a moral or love a moraUser, so let us leave the 

 clover spreading ever thicker over the field and glance at this 

 cumberer of the ground. How beautiful are the velvet 

 leaves of the downy midlein plant and how sincerely we have 

 always admired it, but even the mullein has had its day and 

 without it many a candle in the ancient ingle-nook would 

 have been wickless and spineless and useless, and many a 



aV^//'/^ . , 



