Flower legends for children

THE FORGET-ME-NOT.

Reading edition

A long time ago a knight and his lady were walking by the banks of a river, when suddenly they saw a spray of little blue flowers floating on the water not far from the bank, and it seemed as if they would soon be swept away by the quick-running stream.

The knight, loving well his lady, and thinking it would please her if he saved the flowers for her, jumped into the river and grasped them; but, alas, the current was too strong for him: and as he was swept past the poor lady, who was wringing her hands at the sight of her drowning knight, he threw the flowers at her feet, calling out “Forget-me-not,” and the little blue flowers have been called by that name to this day.

22There is another story connected in legend with the Forget-me-not, and it is this:—

When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, it is said, Adam gave all the flowers their names, and told them to be sure and remember what he called them.

One little flower, however, was careless and forgot its name. The next time Adam passed it in the Garden, in order to see if he was as short of memory as itself, the little flower called out to him: “By what name dost thou call me?” “Forget-me-not,” was Adam’s reply.

Illustration of a crowned woman in a blue gown and red cloak dancing through a field of thorny wild roses beneath a swirling flock of small birds.