The Flame-Flower 61

They say a great dark wolf came to the
door at that time and glared within; and that
when it saw the rays of the flower it shrank
back, and so returned again into the forest, -
howling.

Flamma raised herself on her elbow, and
said, ‘‘We must seek father.”

But Honora stood in the doorway and said,
‘He is gone.” And her voice was hard.

Flamma arose, and, taking the flower
from her hair, set it in her mother’s breast.
Then her mother’s eyes filled again with
tears; and she stretched forth her arms from
the doorway toward the forest, yearningly.

Flamma said no word, but took meat and
put it in a leathern bag, and hung it to her
girdle, and took her mother’s hand ; so they
went out into the forest, the flower in Hon-
ora’s breast making a path of light ; and they
followed the path many days. When they
were weary, Flamma would place the flower
upon the ground; and the snow would dis-
appear, and the turf become dry, so that
they could sleep. The flower warmed them,
and the wolves and the serpents fled from it,