Then the angel covered her with a coat of soft green moss, wherein she might hide her blushing face from the gaze of the passers-by.
Now the rose is beloved by all the birds, especially by the nightingale, the sweetest singer of them all. So great is his love that though
" . . . rich the spot
With every flower this earth has got,
What is it to the nightingale
If there his darling rose is not?"
It is said that when King Solomon, the wisest of kings, was reigning, the birds of the air came to him one day and told him that they could not sleep at night because of the weeping of the nightingale.
"But why do you weep?" inquired the King of the nightingale.
And the bird replied, "Once I was dumb, but the rose taught me to sing, and now I cannot bear to see her rudely handled and her petals crushed beneath the foot of man."
And indeed the fragrant rose is worthy of our love, for it is among the most beautiful of our Heavenly Father's gifts to us.