332 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 
wild columbine that I had the happiness of seeing 
this better flower in its green home, a spot where 
it is, perhaps, more abundant than anywhere in 
England; but the spot I will not name, nor even 
the county; the locality is not given in the books 
I have consulted, yet it is, alas! too well known 
to many whose only pleasure in wild flowers is to 
gather them greedily to see them die indoors. For 
we live indoors and reck not that Nature is de- 
flowered, so that we return with hands or arms full 
of some new brightness to add to the decorations of 
our interiors. ; 
Coming one May Day to a small rustic village, 
I passed the schoolhouse just when the children 
were trooping back in the afternoon, and noticed 
that many of them were carrying bunches of 
fritillaries. They told me where they had got 
them, in a meadow by the neighbouring river; 
then one little girl stepped forward and asked me 
very prettily to accept her bunch. I took it and 
gave her two or three pence, whereupon the other 
children, disregarding the imperious calls of their 
schoolmistress, who was standing outside, all 
flocked round .and eagerly pressed their nosegays 
on me. But J had as many as I wanted; my 
desire was to see the flower growing, so I went my 
way and returned another day to look for the 
favoured spot. I found it a mile from the village, 
at a place where the lovely little river divides into 
three or four, with long strips of greenest meadow- 
land between the currents, with ancient pollard 
