The gardener went towards the hills; but the seed saw him, and
begged the south wind to bear her away. And she took her on her wing
and wafted her many miles from home.
The gardener searched a long time, and was obliged to return without
her. So he took extra care of the plant, and it grew to be the pride of
the garden; while the seed that had her own way was roaming over the
world. The truant one soon lost all her influence over the winds, who
finally refused to carry about a good-for-nothing seed while they had so
much needful work to perform. A cold northern blast was the last one
she could persuade to bear her, and he dropped her on a rock, where she
at last perished from exposure to the rain and cold.
The day before her death, a company of people passed by her, bearing
in their hands some rare and fragrant blossoms, to which she felt a
strange attraction. This gave place to a deep thrill of sorrow as she
heard them describe the lovely plant which grew in a beautiful garden,
and which by their description she knew was her own home, which she
in her folly had left.
"Had I but accepted the conditions of growth, I too might have been
a lovely plant, giving and receiving pleasure," she said, after the
people had passed on. "But now, alas!" and her breath grew quick and
short, "if I had only some one to profit by my last words, telling of my
life of folly, I might not have lived wholly in vain.
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