streaked with the blood of the passing race--standing, a thing of
remembrance.

TALE 19

How the Red Clover Got the White Mark on Its Leaves

[Illustration: How the Red Clover Got the White Mark on Its Leaves]

Once upon a time a Bee, a Bug, and a Cow went marching up to Mother
Carey's palace in the hemlock grove, to tell her of their troubles. They
complained that food was poor and scarce, and they were tired of the
kinds that grew along the roadsides.

Mother Carey heard them patiently, then she said: "Yes, you have some
reason to complain, so I will send you a new food called Clover. Its
flower shall be full of honey for the Bee, its leaves full of cowfood
and its cellar shall be stocked with tiny pudding bags of meal for the
Bug, that is for good little Bug-folks who live underground."

Now the tribes of the Bee, the Bug, and the Cow had a fine time
feasting, for the new food was everywhere.

But Cows are rather stupid you know. They found the new food so good
that they kept on munching everything that had three round leaves,
thinking it was Clover, and very soon a lot of them were poisoned with
strange plants that no wise Cow would think of eating.

So Mother Carey called a Busy Brownie, and put him on guard to keep the
Cows from eating the poison plants by mistake.

At first it was good fun, and the Brownie enjoyed it because it made him
feel important. But he got very tired of his job and wanted to go to the
ball game.

He sat down on a toadstool, and looked very glum. He could hear the
other Brownies shouting at the game, and that made him feel worse. Then
he heard a great uproar, and voices yelling "A home run!" "A home run!"
That drove him wild. He had been whittling the edge of the toadstool
with his knife, and now he slashed off a big piece of the cap, he was so
mad.

Then up he got and said to the Cows: "See here, you fool Cows, I can't
stay here for ever trying to keep you from eating poison, but I'll do
this much. I'll stamp all the good-to-eat leaves with a mark that will
be your guide."

[Illustration: The Shamrock]

So he made a rubber stamp out of part of the toadstool he was sitting
on, and stamped every Clover leaf in that pasture, so the Cows could be
sure, then skipped away to the ball game.

When Mother Carey heard of his running away from his job, she was very
angry. She said: "Well, you Bad Brownie, you should be ashamed, but that
white mark was a good idea so I'll forgive