LEGEND OF ORANGE BLOSSOM

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 89, 14 April 1923, Page 20

LEGEND OF ORANGE BLOSSOM

Once upon a time there lived an.Eastern king who was very much interested in the growing, of trees and- plants. To rf many distant lands he sent for Tare and ''beautiful trees and flowers wherewith to adorn his gardens. Great was hie delight when, one.day. a celebrated botanist presented him with an orange tree. Such a thing had not been seen before in those regions, and the king guarded this new possession as jealously as he guarded_ his jewel? and gold. He was determined that the tree should remain a raretv, the property of himself alone. Therefore, when an ambassador from the west, greatly admiring the orange tree, petitioned the king to sell him—for a large sum—a cutting which he. might introduce into his own country, his request was sternly refused. Now, the head gardener (who, at the court.of the.garden-loving king, was a great and important person), had a fair young daughter, who often came to sit near the orange tree. This was her favourite spot for thinking and dreaming, and although it was a charming place, and the scent of the orange blossoms was delicious, her'thoughts were mostly sad ones, for,: by her father's decree, she was parted from her lover— a good and brave youth whose only fault,was his poverty. The king's gardener, himself a wealthy man,' wished his beautiful daughter to wed some rich and. noble person, and the girl, although she loved the youth; dearly, would not disobey her. father. Help^ came, by . way of the orange tree. The head" gardiner always attended to this himself. One morning He' accidentally broke, off a spray of the blossom, which the girl picked up and fastened into her dark hair. When—presently; she wandered out of the garden into the highway, she met the ■ambassador, who so greatly admired the orange tree. you give me. that sprig of blossom,", he said, "I will give you a large dowyy, of gold." . Possibly the girl waa ignorant of the King's prohibition, or she may not have felt herself bound to obey him, as she felt bound t.o obey her fa'thar. She promptly, removed the sprig froro her hair and gave it to the ambassador, who in return gave her an immense sum of gold. Of course, aP the gold ■ went to the loyor, who showed it to the gardener, without..however, telling him whence it had come. Perhaps file prl feJTd her father afterward.". Or her wedding morning, at any rat*, she contrived l>^ /secure another sprar. which, ir. grateful remembrance of the good service rendered to her by the first she wore in her hair, beneath the bridal veil. And thereby that lovely Eastern bride set a fashion which seems destined never to die out. . ,' ~