AS FANCY FLIES 71 



them; and alas! if it is permitted to turn to shadows for 

 a brief minute, how often do we send flowers where they 

 are not greeted, because that soul has not awakened to 

 their tender beauty. 



I should like to cherish the faith that there was a 

 subtle kinship between the flower lover and the flower; 

 and surely if one has known many gardens he must be- 

 lieve that flowers respond to a spiritual greeting and 

 fade under cold neglect, though conditions of earth and 

 air seem to be proper. 



Our own little garden world being weeded and doing 

 its best at this high tide of the year, growing with all its 

 might, one may take thought if the flowers of tradition 

 have had due reward. There are the Johnny- jump-ups, 

 the common daisy, primroses, cowslips, stocks, and fox- 

 gloves, the flowers of the story book filling the dream 

 gardens. 



The Johnny-jump-ups, once invited within .your gate, 

 remain evermore, and hard must be the heart that would 

 turn them out to make room for an exotic or strange 

 annual. Plant them where there will be little change of 

 beds, and if a fence is near they will throw seeds through 

 the opening; and some day you will see your neighbor 

 bending over them with delight, or hear the shouts of 

 children coming home from school who have discovered 

 a saucy Johnny keeping company with a bouncing Bet 

 long since escaped from gardens., and taking to the road 



