MIGNONETTE
There was once a queen who was so fond of flowers that she wished to make her garden the most beautiful one in the world. Messengers from her court were sent into strange lands, and commanded to bring her majesty rare and wonderful flowering plants to fill her garden with a wealth of bloom.
"It must be a garden fit for a queen," she said to those who were sent at her bidding.
So great was this queen's love of flowers that she ordered her servants to keep a bouquet in every room of the palace during the flower season. And every morning her handmaidens gathered the choicest blossoms and placed them upon a table in the queen's own room.
Now it chanced one day that while thehandmaidens were picking the flowers for their queen, one of them looked over the garden wall to the blue hills that lay beyond. To her great surprise, she discovered that a field alight with wonderful colors—yellow, blue, and crimson—stretched before her. It reached out toward a bank of white daisies which bordered the distant hills.
"Come, come!" she called to the others. "See, is this not a fair sight?"
The handmaidens came at the call and were lost in wonder at the beauty of the scene.
"Let us gather her majesty's bouquet this morning from the flowers here," suggested one. "I am sure our queen does not know how much beauty lies so close to her own garden."
The others were well pleased with the plan. Together they climbed the stone wall, ran into the field, and gathered a wealth of blossoms. In a little while these field flowers graced the royal table.
Now the queen who, as you know, loved her flowers more than any other one thing in the world, never failed each morning to look at her bouquet and examine with loving careeach blossom in it. And it was with no small surprise that she discovered the strange flowers placed that morning upon her table.
"These blossoms are rare, indeed," said she. "Is it possible that my garden contains so many plants that are strangers to me? I have seen blossoms more beautiful than some of these, but never before have I enjoyed a perfume so delicious. To which one of them does it belong, I wonder?" And the queen bent close to the bouquet to see if she could detect the flower with the sweet odor.
"I shall want the same kind of bouquet for many days," she said, smiling.
So it happened that each morning the handmaidens ran to the fields beyond the palace garden, and gathered some of the flowers which had won her majesty's heart.
One morning the queen called her handmaidens to her and said, "The flower with the delicious odor is missing. Do you know which one was not gathered to-day?"
"We do not know," said the maidens; "each day we have tried to bring the same kind of flowers. We will search for it."
But day after day the queen was disappointed, because she missed from her flowers the one whose perfume was the sweetest she had ever enjoyed.
Once or twice she thought the handmaidens had found the blossom, but in a little while she knew the scent was not the one she was hoping to find.
One morning she said, "I'll go with you to gather the blossoms, my handmaidens. I shall find the flower by its rare odor."
Then the maidens told the queen about the meadow outside the royal park, and together they went to the beautiful field, whose blossoms delighted her majesty's heart. Many times while they were all searching for the treasure, they saw the queen stoop over a bright flower and linger for a moment or two. Then she would shake her head and say, "No, that is not the perfume I am searching."
"It must be in this meadow somewhere," said one of the maidens, "for many days we have gathered flowers nowhere but here."
"We'll search until we find it, then," said the queen.
As she spoke a light breeze began to stir the flowers, and a delicate perfume filled the air.
"I smell the rare odor now," called out her majesty. "Come, stand near for a moment, and enjoy it. Surely the flower is not far away."
The handmaidens gathered round their queen. Suddenly one of them said, "Can it be that this odor comes from the little plant under your majesty's foot?" asked one of the maidens.
"Surely not," answered another; "those flowers are so small and colorless."
The queen stooped down and took a spray from the humble little plant which had sent forth an exquisite perfume when a careless foot had crushed its blossoms.
"It is! It is!" cried the queen in delight. "I have found it at last. It shall be brought into the royal gardens, and shall be my special treasure. What a modest little plant it is, and what rare delight it gives."
"Shall you give your treasure a name?" asked the handmaidens.
The queen looked for a moment at the spray she held. Then she said, "I shall call itMignonette, which means 'little darling.'"
Accordingly, the mignonette was taken from its wild life in the meadows and brought into the gardens, where it still gives forth the sweetest of all perfumes.