of the garden or a wildling of the 

 fields. In truth he almost prefers the 

 latter as being more directly a gift of 

 Nature, a something that has come 

 without his volition, and not through 

 his agency. He knows every blossom 

 which grows within a mile of his 

 door, and not a daffodil or a cowslip can 

 wither and fall without his missing it. 

 Particularly true is this of the early 

 blossoms which come before the whole 

 earth has put on her mantle of spring. 



The impulse to pluck a flower is 

 set in almost every breast, — if not for 

 one's own adornment, then to deck a 

 loved one. From such impulses sprang 

 the use of flowers in various festivals. 



In northern Europe, in those early 

 times which are so far back that it is 

 hard for us to appreciate their crude- 

 ness, long before the Romans had 

 swept up from the south, or Christian 

 ideas had crept in their wake, the rude 

 -27 



