Mary's Meadow, and Other Tales of Fields and Flowers

y to be good, and then there comes

ay to them. "Others first, Little Mothers afterwards," as we used to say

r end, there were no Queens, or dwarfs, or characters of any kind in all Bechstein's fairy tales, or even in Grimm, more popular than the Queen of the B

est Root-gatherer to divide the polyanthus plants and the bulbs when we take them up, and divide them fairly, and a Weeding Woman to work and make things tidy, and a Queen in a blue dress,

ng it into a Speaking Garden, and we're going t

say anything of the kind. Say we're v

be a deal more than my place is worth to

l take up Dandelion roots to the very bottom, and sell

rs, Harry," said Arthur. "

rancis le Vea

ce that Bessy's aunt takes three bottles of my dandelion and camomile mixture for 'the swimmings,' bathes her eyes every morning with my elde

ly orange-coloured paper, I know, and pale yellow, and white. The bonnet was Marigold colour, was it not? And one string canary-coloured and one white. I couldn't tie them, of course, being paper; but Bessy's aunt doesn't tie her bonnet. She wears it like a helmet, to shad

Adela never stops saying whatever it is she is sayi

ish, that if Mother could have

eally like the Weeding Woman's work; it was the bonnet that had caught her fancy, and I found it hard to smother the vexing thought that if I had gone on dressing the Weeding Woman of the Earthly Paradise like Bessy's aunt, instead of trying to make the story mo

s very good-natured. And I knew, too, that it would not have cost her much. She would have given a sigh

ng else-very good-for her. If we could have thought of something, Mary, I was thinking how jolly it would be, when Mother

just like a Que

n's cloth and Russia

ressing up, and walking about the garden would be no fun for me. I really had looked forward to clearing away big baskets full of weeds and rubbish, and keeping our five garden

important, than tidy ga

ad been lucky enough to think of a game that pleased th

ught I might, perhaps, devise another character for myself by and by; and that if the

ys are satisfied with things in general, when they've go

ela's extreme desire to be with me and talk abo

f making the bonnet. There is an index, so that you can look out the flowers you want to read about. It was no use our looking out flowers, except com

they say, are nightingales; which is, perhaps, why that nighti

ld Cowslip, the Primrose Cowslip, the Single Green Cowslip, Curled Cowslips, or Galligaskins, Do

in my garden, when our gardener despised them. Bessy's aunt despised them too, and she said the double ones were only fit for a cottage garden. I laughed so much that I tore t

no pictures. I began at the beginning of the chapter; this was it

ericlymemum.

weete, yet doe I not bring it into my garden, but let it rest in his ow

n James came in. He

ere was a letter for me, and a

y trust-worthy little daughter, to tell you of the bit that pleased me most. He says-'The children seem to me to be behaving unusually well, and I must say, I believe the credit belongs to Mary. She seems to have a genius for keeping them amused, which luckily means keeping them out of mischief.' Now, good Little Mother, I wonder how you yourself are bei

he Weeding Woman with a good grace, and coul

away and buried mys

a, and the Discomfited Florists-were very amusing indeed; and some were sad and pretty, like the Yellow Roses; and th

ot into a very dull one, about the vine, and it had a

re about them; they were not in the least like the Discomfited Florists, o

thers, I do my utmost to spread and render common and vulgar all the trees and plants that I prefer; it is as if I multiplied the pleasure and the chances of beholding them of all who, like me, really love flowers for their splendour, their grace, and their perfume. Those who, on the contrary, are jealous of their plants, and only esteem them in proportion with

ulgarization of beautiful

eds of my most favourite plants, which re-sow themselves, perpetuate themselves, and multiply themselves. At this moment, whilst the fields display nothing but the common red

th its white flower, may sometimes be found the beautifully climbin

and cover them with the deliciously-scented whi

on it red and white cultivated roses, sometimes single roses of a magnificent go

forget-me-nots, with their blue flowers, with which the rivulet of my

in the nearest wood; next spring I will eng

d surprise which the solitary stroller will experience when he meets

a stupid and startling system. All these beautiful flowers will have become common in the country, and will give it an aspect peculiar to i

n there was a vignette, a very pretty on

That's what I'll be! I can think of a name hereafter-but that's what I'll do. I'll take seeds and cuttings, and off-shoots