Ladyday to Whitsunday 
They are mostly called Kingcups here, not Marsh Mari- 
golds ; Wildfires is an older Scotch name, Meadow Bootes 
is an old English name. A Booite used to be a Lanthorn. 
Is meadow boote just a field lanthorn ? There are lots 
of blue forget-me-nots now down by the river, and white ones 
in the garden. I like the Yorkshire name for white forget- 
me-nots so much — “Think-me-on.” A “think-me-on” also 
means a cheap little present bought at a fair, a fairing. 
The old story of the German knight who lost his footing 
gathering blue forget-me-nots for his Mddchen is well known, 
but I don’t think the legend of the origin of the forget-me- 
not as told by the poet Shiraz is as well known, though 
Mr. Thiselton-Dyer tells it prettily in his charming book 
of “ Plant Folk-Lore.” I think it ran somewhat thus, if I 
remember right. An Angel wandering over the Earth 
saw a fair daughter of Earth sitting by a stream, decking 
her hair with forget-me-nots. He lost his heart to her, and 
fell from his high estate in consequence, being forbidden to 
enter Paradise till the woman he loved had planted the 
fatal blue flower all over the earth. So hand-in-hand they 
planted it everywhere. Then the Gates of Paradise opened 
to admit them and, without tasting of death and its bitter- 
ness, the Daughter of Earth, become immortal, entered 
the Garden of Paradise with her angelic lover. 
May 28. — There is a blackbird’s nest in a snowberry 
bush. First I saw blue eggs in it, and now it has several 
strong-billed hobgoblins in it, with bits of short black quill 
appearing on their skinny wings. An old name for un- 
fledged birds in Scotland was “ gorblin, gorbet, gorblet,” or 
“ gordlin,” and the down on them “gorblin hair.” In York- 
shire I believe they are still sometimes called “gorbals.” In 
the Lothians a young person used sometimes to go by this 
name. I took my little chair into the thicket and drew a 
picture of the gorbals yesterday afternoon. How odd it is 
young flying birds should be such frights, when young 
chickens and turkeys and ducks are so pretty ! I believe 
the young of the woodpecker do not even have down 
on them, but are naked as little worms ! But perhaps 
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