He turned back a dozen times to wave his hands to her, and to the
children telling the fairy time.
But he did not ask now why dandelion clocks go differently with
different people. Godfather Time had told him. He teaches us many
things.
THE TRINITY FLOWER.
A LEGEND.
"Break forth, my lips, in praise, and own
The wiser love severely kind:
Since, richer for its chastening grown,
I see, whereas I once was blind."
_The Clear Vision_, J.G. WHITTIER.
In days of yore there was once a certain hermit, who dwelt in a cell,
which he had fashioned for himself from a natural cave in the side of
a hill.
Now this hermit had a great love for flowers, and was moreover learned
in the virtues of herbs, and in that great mystery of healing which
lies hidden among the green things of GOD. And so it came to pass that
the country people from all parts came to him for the simples which
grew in the little garden which he had made before his cell. And as
his fame spread, and more people came to him, he added more and more
to the plat which he had reclaimed from the waste land around.
But after many years there came a Spring when the colours of the
flowers seemed paler to the hermit than they used to be; and as Summer
drew on, their shapes became indistinct, and he mistook one plant for
another; and when Autumn came, he told them by their various scents,
and by their form, rather than by sight; and when the flowers were
gone, and Winter had come, the hermit was quite blind.
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