The Flower Princess

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HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. Boston and New York

COPYRIGHT 1904 BY ABBIE FARWELL BROWN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published September, 1904
Oh, give me for a little space To see with childlike eyes This curious world, our dwelling-place Of wonder and surprise. . . . The long, long road from Day to Night Winds on through constant change, Whereon one hazards with delight Adventures new and strange; The wonders of the earth and sky! The magic of the sea! The mysteries of beast and fly, Of bird and flower and tree! One feels the breath of holy things Unseen along the road, The whispering of angel wings, The neighboring of Good. And Beauty must be good and true, One battles for her sake; But Wickedness is foul to view, So one cannot mistake. . . . Ah, give me with the childlike sight The simple tongue and clear Wherewith to read the vision right Unto a childish ear.
Acknowledgments are due the publishers of The Churchman for permission to reprint The Flower Princess and The Little Friend; also to the Brown Book of Boston for permission to use The Ten Blowers, which first appeared in that magazine.

NCE upon a time there was a beautiful Princess named Fleurette, who lived in a white marble palace on the top of a high hill. The Princess Fleurette was very fond of flowers, and all around the palace, from the very gates thereof, a fair garden, full of all kinds of wonderful plants, sloped down to the foot of the hill, where it was snugly inclosed with a high marble wall. Thus the hill was like a great nosegay rising up in the midst of the land, sending out sweet odors to perfume the air for miles, bright with color in the sunshine, and musical with the chorus of birds and the hum of millions of bees.
One part of the garden was laid out in walks and avenues, with little vine-clad bowers here and there, where the Princess could sit and read, or lie and dream. There were fountains and statues among the trees, and everything grand and stately to make a garden beautiful. Another part of the garden was left wild and tangled, like a forest. Here all the shyest flowers grew in their own wild way; and here ran a little brook, gurgling over the pebbles in a race to the foot of the hill. There never was seen a more complete and beautiful garden than this of the Princess Fleurette.