“Oh, my dear! my dear!” cried her mother, when Marie returned, “how I have missed you!”
“Little one, you must never go away again; we cannot spare you,” said her father.
“I shall never leave you again, dear mother and father; for all I love is here now.”
She buried the golden ball in her garden just under her bedroom window, and indeed she did water the little grave with the tears of love, as the Old Man had told her to do, and the next time he came to visit the farm, she led him to the little grave, and, lo, it was covered with a pretty blue flower which had a tiny golden centre.
“Ah!” said the Old Man, “did I not tell you you would be rewarded?”
“The blue eyes and the golden hair of Prince Charlie will never be forgotten now; they seem to say to me, ‘Forget-me-not, forget-me-not,’” answered Marie.
And ever since that time the tiny flower has been called “Forget-me-not.”
