72 COLUMBINE'S GLORY 



He says if the flower should vanish there will still 

 be this secret place to show its full beauty." 



" Even Philip Todd doesn't know I have this 

 bunk," Tommy added. " I don't tell it because 

 if these flowers were picked by all the people 

 that pass through the woods, they'd soon have the 

 same look of old soldiers without arms and legs, 

 that those have about Old Adam. Nearly every 

 one loves to pick flowers; but when some people 

 see a Columbine it seems as though they must take 

 the whole clump and carry the earth away as well. 



" Father met a school-teacher in these woods 

 one day. She had come out from the city, because 

 she heard this was a good place for finding wild 

 flowers. In her hand she had the largest bunch 

 of Columbine that father had ever seen, and she 

 had picked it all from around Old Adam. She 

 said she was going to distribute it among her class 

 the next day. Father then told her the harm she 

 had done, and she was truly sorry. She said she 

 didn't know that there were some wild flowers 

 which shouldn't be picked. I thought that was 

 worse than not knowing the queer things they ask 

 in arithmetic." 



Grandmother laughed. " Let us hope," she 

 said, " that the school-teacher has learned her les- 

 son, and that in future Tommy will know his." 



Then we took a farewell look at Columbine's 

 glory, and slipped away as Tommy lifted up the 

 Arrow-wood branches. 



