Thistles and Nettles 337 
As the geese once saved Rome, so the thistle 
saved Great Britain, by causing a midnight alarm 
and scaring off a midnight foe. A thousand years 
ago the inhabitants of England and Scotland were 
much harassed by the Danes, who sailed far up 
the rivers in flat-bottomed boats, attacked the vil- 
lages, destroyed the crops, seized the movables, 
drove off the cattle, and were back in their boats 
and away before the astonished British could col- 
lect their thoughts and their forces, and punish the 
marauders as they deserved. But sea-robbers as 
the Danes were, they had a code of honor which 
forbade them to attack a sleeping foe. On one 
occasion, however, they were false to this tradition, 
and landed on the shores of a Scottish river in 
moonlight and silence, intending to surprise a sleep- 
ing village. But as they crept stealthily upon this 
evil errand one of them trod, with naked foot, upon 
a thistle. He very naturally cried out, and his 
clamor wakened the villagers, who flew to arms, 
and drove the sea-robbers away. Thereafter the 
thistle was honored in Scotland as the goose was 
in Rome. It was adopted as the national flower. 
It blooms with the rose of England and the 
shamrock of Ireland in the floral emblem of 
Great Britain, and many noble Scottish families 
