THE HERBS OF THE FIELD. 



215 



but let him tarry until the gloaming, and when 

 the lilies have folded he will catch, what is even 

 better, glimpses of the night-side of Nature. 



&tje f erbs of tlje Jieifc. 



WANDERING recently in and out the woods 

 and fields, tramping aimlessly whithersoever 

 fancy led me, I crushed with my feet, at last, a 

 stem of pennyroyal. Catching the warm fra- 

 grance of its pungent oil, straightway the little- 

 loved present vanished. How true it is that 

 many an odor, however faint, opens the closed 

 doors of the past ! Prosy and commonplace it 

 may seem, but full many a time a whiff from 

 the kitchen of some old farm-house, where I 

 have stopped for a drink of water, recalls an- 

 other farm-kitchen, redolent of marvelous ginger- 

 bread and pies, such as I have failed to find in 

 recent years, and with their tempting spiciness 

 went that subtle odor, from which indeed the 

 whole house was never free, that of sweet- 

 smelling herbs. I am daily thankful that the 

 herbs at least have not changed, as the years 

 roll by. It is the same pennyroyal that my 

 grandmother gathered ; and think to what 

 strange use she put it ! Made pennyroyal pud- 

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