3o8 popular tales OF FLOWERS 
wrote a “broad letter/' with his own hand, to which he 
affixed his royal seal, and despatched it by a messenger ; 
and instead of foes, the two old knights became friends, 
even as they were in the days of their youth. And the 
sounds which startled Love in the forest were the monarch 
and his retainers, and the two old knights and their fol- 
lowers, and a great concourse of people, who had sallied 
out from the castle, and were going to hunt the noblest 
hart they could find in the thicket, and to honour by their 
presence the marriage ceremony of “ The Daisy of the 
Dale." 
THE LEGEND OF THE FLOWER-SPIRITS. 
It was soon after the creation of the world, when the 
hand of nature had roughed-out its mighty work, had 
thrown the mountains ruggedly together, and broad-cast 
the flowers over the hills and valleys, that lesser powers 
were appointed to arrange them in order and harmony; 
when winged attendants were placed over the woods, and 
fair forms drew out the lines in which the bending water- 
courses were to run ; while the most beautiful spirits, that 
kept watch and ward over the gardens of heaven, were 
sent down to superintend and give the finishing strokes 
of beauty to the flowers. From many that were gaudy in 
colour and graceful in form they took away the fragrance, 
transferring their perfume to lowlier flowers, whose love- 
liness would have been overlooked had not sweetness been 
added to their beauty. 
The blossom of the Woodbine was thrown aside pale 
and neglected, until one fair spirit took it up and breathed 
into it an odour which she had brought from the opening 
blossoms of Eden ; another took up her palette, on which 
was spread out every hue of the rainbow, and gave to the 
pallid Woodbine a golden and crimson rue ; while a third 
squeezed into its cup a drop of the sweetest honev ; and 
a fourth, around whose slender waist were twined trailing 
stems of every form, took out the longest and fastened 
to it the head of the beautiful Woodbine. Tall and 
graceful did she arise from her seat when she had fin- 
