230 THE PROCESSION OF SPRING 



The forget-me-not's is "the higher mission," you 

 - say ? It may be so. But we were speaking not of 

 missions, but of facts. And the fact remains that the 

 speedwell never left the bank, and so the botanist 

 had never seen the speedwell. For he had but 

 one holiday in all the year, and that was at Christmas- 

 time, when he went to see his old mother. 



And as to missions : it is not given to every one to 

 have " high missions," if that means going far afield. 

 If Don Quixote had stayed at home, had looked after 

 the old women and tried the poachers, the world would 

 have been the loser, but perhaps he would have done 

 more good in his day. 



I fear that could our botanist have seen the speed- 

 well on its bank he would have given it welcome only 

 as Veronica chamcedrys^ an hypogynous, scrophularious, 

 monopetalous dicotyledon. " His line," as he said, 

 "was classification." So that, I suppose, was his 

 mission. And no unworthy mission either. For a 

 love of classification is a love of order, and that at 

 least is a function of the Mind Supreme. 



The speedwell has its mission all the same, but 

 more of that by-and-by. 



However firm the hold of winter on the land, even 

 that strong hand must at last grow weary, and one by 





