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.
There 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: 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.]