“It don’t matter a bit,” he said, “what you make your garland of. Flowers is all perishin’ things and they’ll be dead next day, and wear what you will, they won’t make you into a real Queen. But there’s things as will always make folks bow down when they see ’em, May Day or no May Day, and them’s the things you ought to seek for, early and late till you find ’em. You take a lot of pains to get flowers to deck your outsides, but you don’t care much for the plants I’m thinking of; you leave ’em to chance, and so sometimes they’re choked out by the weeds. An’ yet they’re worth takin’ trouble for, and if you once get ’em to take root and grow they’re fit to crown the finest Queen as ever was; and they won’t die either, but the more you use ’em the fresher and sweeter they’ll be. There’s Love now; you can’t understand anyone, not the smallest child, without that. There’s Truth; you can’t do anything with folks unless they trust you. There’s Obedience; you can’t rule till you know how to serve. There’s three plants for you, and there’s a whole lot more, but that’s enough for you to bear in mind, and I must be going along.”
Joshua departed much satisfied with his eloquence, leaving Mrs White equally impressed.
“Lor’!” she exclaimed, “there’s a gifted man. It’s every bit as good as being in church to hear him. And I hope, Lilac, as how you’ll lay it to heart and mind it when you get to be a woman.”
But Lilac did not feel in the least inclined to lay it to heart. She was vexed with Uncle Joshua, who had not been the least help in her perplexity; for once he had failed her, and she was glad he had gone away so that she could think over a plan for to-morrow. It was of no use evidently to reckon on white lilac any longer, the only thing to be done now was to get up very early the next morning and pick the best moon daisies she could find for Miss Ellen. This determination was so strong within her when she fell asleep, that she woke with a sudden start next morning as the daylight was just creeping through her lattice. Had she overslept herself? No, it was beautifully early, it must be an hour at least before her usual time. She dressed herself quickly and quietly, so as not to disturb her mother in the next room, and then pushing open her tiny window gave an anxious look at the weather. Would it be fine? At present a thin misty grey veil was spread over everything, but she could see the village below, which looked fast, fast asleep, with no smoke from its chimneys and nothing stirring. There was such a stillness everywhere that it seemed wrong to make a noise, as though you were in church. And the birds felt it too, for they twittered in a subdued manner, keeping back their full burst of song to greet someone who would come presently. Lilac knew who that was. She knew as well as the birds that very soon the sun would thrust away the misty veil and show his beaming face to the valley. It would be fine. It was May Day, and she was Queen!
She drew a deep breath of delight, went downstairs on tiptoe, found a basket and a knife, tied on her bonnet, and unlatched the door; but there she stopped short, checked on the threshold by a sight so surprising that for a moment she could not move. For at her feet, on the doorstep, lying there purely white as though it had fallen from the clouds, was a great mass of white lilac. There were branches and branches of it, so that the air was filled with its gentle delicate scent, and it was so fresh that all its leaves were moist with dew. Someone had been up earlier even than herself. The question was—who?
Uncle Joshua of course; he had not failed after all, though how even such a very clever man could have got to Cuddingham and back since last night was more than Lilac could tell. That did not matter. There it was, and what a fine lot of it! “He must have brought away nigh a whole bush,” she said to herself. “Miss Ellen will be rare and pleased, surely.” She gathered up the sweet-smelling boughs at last, and put them into one of her mother’s washing-baskets. There was no need to pick moon daisies now, and as she swept and dusted the room and lit the fire she gave many looks of admiration at her treasure, and many grateful thoughts to Uncle Joshua. Mrs White also had no doubt that he had managed it somehow; and she was so moved by the fact of his kindness, and by Lilac being Queen, and by a hundred past memories, that her usual composure left her, and she threw her apron over her head and had a good cry.
“There!” she said when it was over, “I can’t think what makes me so silly. But Jem he would a been proud to have seen you—he always liked the laylocks.”
But now came the question as to how it was to be carried down the hill to the school room. Lilac could not lift the great basket, and it was at last found best to pile up the branches in her long white pinafore, which she held by the two corners. When all was ready she looked seriously across the fragrant burden, which reached up to her chin, and said:
“You’ll be sure and be up there in time, won’t you, Mother, or you won’t see me crowned?”
“No fear,” said Mrs White as she held the gate open. “Mind and walk steady or you’ll drop some, and you can’t pick it up if you do.”