HEATH FAMILY 



the beauties of nature, but this clustered pink sweet- 

 ness, smiling under the dry leaves of the forest and 

 blooming ere the snow banks had disappeared in the 

 hollows of the wood, touched even them. It must be 

 placed to their credit that they named it well ; how- 

 ever much they might have been assisted by the 

 month of the calendar or the ship in the harbor; and 

 it is not worth while to look too closely into the 

 sources of their inspiration. So well have time and 

 literature and imagination worked together that to 

 most of us the Trailing Arbutus seems one of the his- 

 toric assets of New England. 



Sad Mayflower ! watched by winter stars, 



And nursed by winter gales, 

 With petals of the sleeted spars, 



And leaves of frozen sails ! 



What had she in those dreary hours 



Within her ice-rimmed bay, 

 In common with the wild-wood flowers, 



The first sweet smiles of May ! 



Yet, " God be praised " the Pilgrim said, 



Who saw the blossoms peer 

 Above the brown leaves, dry and dead, 



" Behold our Mayflower here ! " 



" God wills it ; here our rest shall be, 



Our years of wandering o'er, 

 For us the Mayflower of the sea 



Shall spread her^sails no more." 



O sacred flowers of faith and hope, 



As sweetly now as then 

 Ye bloom on many a birchen slope, 



In many a pine-dark glen. 



JOHN G. WHITTIER. 



394 





