LEGEND OF THE FLOWER-SPIRITS. 123 
f 
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 in the gar¬ 
dens of heaven, were sent down to superintend, and 
give the finishing strokes of beauty to the flowers. 
From many that were gaudy in color and graceful in 
form, they took away the fragrance, transferring their 
perfume to lowlier flowers, whose loveliness 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 odor which she had brought from 
the opening blossoms of Eden ; another took up her 
palette, on which was spread out every hue of the rain¬ 
bow, and gave to the pallid Woodbine a gold and 
crimson hue; while a third squeezed into its cup a 
drop of the sweetest honey ; 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 : rising up when she had 
finished, and twisting it gracefully around her, until 
• _ 
