282 THE LAND'S END 



" What are those ? " he said, pointing with his knife 

 at the flowers and addressing his wife in no pleasant 

 tones. " What does this mean ? " 



She cast down her eyes and kept silence. 



" I can tell you," I said. " I gathered them myself 

 in one of your fields and put them on the table much 

 against your wife's wish. I can't imagine why she 

 objected. It is one of our finest wild flowers I call 

 it the Farmer's Glory." 



" The Farmer's Glory ! Oh, that's what you call 

 it well ," and then he suddenly sat down and 

 began carving with tremendous energy and in grim 

 silence. 



My pen has run away with me, since I had the 

 images of but two or three wild flowers in my mind 

 to write about in this chapter flowers of the early 

 spring only and then the winter heliotrope came up 

 and would not be denied. True, it was of the winter, 

 like Kirke White's " Rosemary " 



Sweet-scented flower ! who art wont to bloom 



On January's front severe, 

 And o'er the wintry desert drear 



To waft thy sweet perfume 



still, I had to write about it. A flower, like a bird or 

 anything in nature, is little to me unless it " ministers 

 some particular cause of remembrance," which means 

 in my case that either on account of its intrinsic 

 beauty or charm or of its associations it moves my 

 emotions more strongly than others. 



The colt's-foot having come first, there are but two 

 others to speak particularly of a yellow and a blue 



