20 LANGUAGE OP FLOWERS. 



Dwell in his face, I asked him all his story. 



He told me that his parents gentle died, 



Leaving him to the mercy of the fields, 



Which gave him roots, and of the crystal springs, 



Which did not stop their courses ; and the sun, 



Which still, he thanked him, yielded him his light. 



Then took he up his garland, and did show 



What every flower, as country people hold, 



Did signify ; and how all, ordered thus, 



Expressed his grief: And, to my thoughts, did read 



The prettiest lecture of his country art 



That could be wished. I gladly entertained him, 



Who was as glad to follow, and have got 



The trustiest, loving'st, and the gentlest boy, 



That ever master kept. Him will I send 



To wait on you, and bear our hidden love." 



BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. 



Thus did the gentle boy mitigate his grief by 

 turning an emblematic wreath into a mute 

 expression of it. 



" Give sorrow words : the grief, that does not speak, 

 Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break." 



Says Malcolm to the bereaved husband and 

 father in " Macbeth," and this poor orphan 

 had hit upon a mode of giving his " sorrow 

 words," more touching, perhaps, than a more 

 loud and violent utterance could have ben. 



