306 Old Time Gardens 
Great bushes of Elder, another flower of witch- 
craft, grow and blossom near my Thyme bank. Old 
Thomas Browne, as long ago as 1685 called the Elder 
bloom “ white umbrellas ” — which has puzzled me 
much, since we are told to assign the use and knowl- 
edge of umbrellas in England to a much later date ; 
perhaps he really wrote umbellas. Now it is a well- 
known fact — sworn to in scores of old herbals, 
that any one who stands on Wild Thyme, by the 
side of an Elder bush, on Midsummer Eve, will 
“ see great experiences ” ; his eyes will be opened, 
his wits quickened, his vision clarified ; and some 
have even seen fairies, pixies — • Shakespeare’s elves 
—-sporting over the Thyme at their feet. 
I shall not tell whom I saw walking on my Wild 
Thyme bank last Midsummer Eve. I did not need 
the Elder bush to open my eyes. I watched the 
twain strolling back and forth in the half-light, and 
I heard snatches of talk as they walked toward me, 
and I lost the responses as they turned from me. 
At last, in a louder voice : — 
He. “What is this jolly smell all around here? Just 
like a mint-julep! Some kind of a flower?” 
She. “It’s Thyme, Wild Thyme; it has run into the 
edge of the lawn from the field, and is just ruining the 
grass.” 
He ( stooping to pick it). “ Why, so it is. I thought 
it came from that big white flower over there by the hedge.” 
She. “ No, that is Elder.” 
He ( after a pause). “I had to learn a lot of old 
Arnold’s poetry at school once, or in college, and there was 
some just like to-night : — 
