the) meaning of the) ffowe)r 
55 
The Saint gazed about him in perplexity; he looked up, 
and he looked down. Then, stooping, he plucked a sham¬ 
rock growing at his feet and held it up before the people. 
Do you not see,” said he, “in this wild flower, how 
three leaves are united on one stalk, and will you not 
then believe what I tell you, that there are indeed three 
persons and yet one God?” 
The people understood, and from that time the Sham¬ 
rock has been the national flower of Ireland. 
A thousand years ago, when a gentleman had no busi¬ 
ness but to fight, the Danes came down from the north 
to conquer Scotland. On the eastern-most point of that 
country stood a strong castle, walled and moated. One 
dark night, when the Danes had made all ready, they 
took off their shoes and crept stealthily upon this castle, 
expecting to swim across the moat. Suddenly the air re¬ 
sounded with cries of rage and distress; not a man but 
longed for water,—the dry moat was filled with thistles! 
Inside the castle the men-at-arms were roused, and 
Scotland was saved. Out of gratitude for their escape, 
the Scots adopted the thistle as their national emblem. 
Every loyal Welshman wears a leek in his cap upon 
Saint David’s Day. In the year 640, on Saint David’s 
Day, the Welsh were about to march against an English 
army. In those times, every army did not have its own 
specially designed uniform, as it has now, so to dis- 
