CHAPTER XVI 



MEETIN' SEED AND SABBATH DAY POSIES 



" I touched a thought, I know 

 Has tantalized me many times. 

 Help me to hold it ! First it left 

 The yellowing Fennel run to seed." 



ROBERT BROWNING. 



|Y " thought " is the association of 

 certain flowers with Sunday ; the 

 fact that special flowers and leaves 

 and seeds, Fennel, Dill, and 

 Southernwood, were held to be 

 fitting and meet to carry to the 

 Sunday service. " Help me to hold it " to re- 

 cord those simple customs of the country-side ere 

 they are forgotten. 



In the herb garden grew three free-growing plants, 

 all three called indifferently in country tongue, 

 " meetin' seed." They were Fennel, Dill, and Cara- 

 way, and similar in growth and seed. Caraway is 

 shown on page 342. Their name was given because, 

 in summer days of years gone by, nearly every woman 

 and child carried to " meeting " on Sundays, bunches 

 of the ripe seeds of one or all of these three plants, 

 to nibble throughout the long prayers and sermon. 

 It is fancied that these herbs were anti-soporific, 

 but I find no record of such power. On the con- 



