64 THE FLORAL ORACLE. 
summer mew, as the bending of the leaves to the 
right or to the left would never fail to tell her 
whether her lover was true or false.” The 
plant here alluded to is better known as orpine, 
and the above custom is thus adverted to in the 
“ Cottage Girl,” a poem purporting to have been 
written on Midsummer-eve, 1786:— 
“ The young maid stole through the cottage door, 
And blushed as she sought the jdant of power, 
‘ Thou silver glow-worm, 0 lend me thy light, 
I must gather the mystic St. John’s-wort to-night; 
The wonderful herb, whose leaf will decide 
If the coming year shall make me a bride!’ 
And the glow-worm came 
With its silvery flame, 
And sparkled and shone 
Thro’ the night of St. John ; 
And soon as the youug maid her love-knot tied, 
“ With noiseless tread 
To her chamber she sped, 
Where the spectral moon her white beams shed. 
‘ Bloom here, bloom here, thou plant of power, 
To deck the young bride in her bridal hour!’ 
But it drooped its head, that plant of power, 
And died the mute death of the voiceless flower; 
And a withered wreath on the ground it lay, 
More meet for a burial than bridal day. 
And when a year was passed away, 
All pale on her bier the young maid lay ! 
And the glow-worm came 
With its silvery flame, 
And sparkled and shone 
Tliro’ the night of St. John ; 
And they closed the cold grave o’er the maid’s cold clay.” 
THE END. 
