“Suppose we go to the grove and gather flowers.”
“Yes, we’ll get some for mamma, and then she will tell us fairy tales about them.”
The next morning Charlie and Anna spent in the woods. Charlie pulled the flowers that Anna could not reach, and she carried home a big bunch, which her mamma put in a vase. There were dandelions, cowslips, jonquils, and woodbine.
“Does dandelion mean that the lion is a dandy, mamma?” asked Anna.
“No, dear, that comes from a French word—dent-de-lion—lion’s teeth. Another flower from the French is the pansy, which means pensée, thought, and the emblem is, Think of me.”
“Can you tell us anything about the jonquil?” asked Charlie.
“That flower belongs to the Narcissus family. There is a pretty story about it. Once there lived a beautiful boy named Narcissus. While hunting one day, he sat down by a stream to rest, and seeing his face in the water, fell in love with it. Because he couldn’t get his picture, he pined away, and the fairies changed him into a flower.”
“He was a silly fellow,” said Charlie.
“But if he hadn’t been so,” replied Anna, “there wouldn’t be any nice story. I love flowers with stories to them.”
