A WILD STRAWBERRY 257 



I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerful- 

 ness I can wait. 



My foothold is tenoned and mortised in granite, 

 I laugh at what you call dissolution, 

 And I know the amplitude of time. 



THE STORY OF NARCISSUS 



ANONYMOUS 



NARCISSUS was a beautiful youth, who, seeing his 

 image reflected in a fountain, became so enamored 

 of it that he pined away and was finally changed into 

 the flower that bears his name. Poetic legends 

 regard this as a just punishment for his hard-hearted- 

 ness to Echo, and other wood-nymphs and maidens, 

 who had loved him devotedly. 



The narcissus loves the borders of streams, and is 

 admirably personified in the story, for bending on its 

 fragile stem it seems to be always seeking to see its 

 own image reflected in the waters. 



FROM 

 A WILD STRAWBERRY* 



BY HENRY VAN DYKE 



FOR my own part, I approve of garden flowers 

 because they are so orderly and so certain; but wild 



* From " Fisherman's Luck," copyright, 1899, 1905, by Charles 

 Scribner's Sons. 



