262 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



renewal of his sadness at not having been able to see 

 his mother before her death, but his letters had arrived 

 so long after the event. Distances, too, are so huge in 

 Sweden, and poverty forbids the indulgence of grief, a 

 luxury permitted only to the rich ; but revisiting the 

 scenes of his childhood brought his mother doubly near 

 to him. 



' His mother was not permitted to see the successes 

 and honours which her eldest-born was destined to 

 achieve. Poor mother ! Her sun had gone down 

 when it was yet midday ; she had borne the burden 

 and heat of the noon, but the season of rest, of in- 

 gathering and rejoicing she tasted not in this life, for 

 she is laid in her lowly grave in the shadow of the 

 church of Stenbrohult, and thither her son repairs to 

 shed in secret the tear of filial love and regret. Per- 

 haps he has never more longed for the sympathy of a 

 mother's heart than now, when he feels the anxieties 

 and fears of hope deferred and to whom could he have 

 so unreservedly communicated the thousand hopes, joys, 

 fancies, and desires that throng around his heart as to 

 her who lies there ? Ah ! in vain he sighs and longs 

 for some response ; there is no sound save that of the 

 murmuring breeze that waves the harebells which 

 cluster over the green sod beneath which she lies. 

 "Alas, my mother ! " and again, " Alas, alas, my mother ! " 

 he cries, and bitter tears fall fast. But soon he has 

 dried them ; he may not yield longer to grief ; the day 

 of life is yet before him, and he must gird himself and 



