him. But somehow, after they had worked in the sweet-scented earth for a
while and had seen others working, the light of the sun and the
freshness of the air made them feel in better humor; the wind blew away
their evil fancies and their headaches, and because there was so much
talk and wondering about the magic of the Blue Flower they became
interested, and wanted to see what it would do for them when it
blossomed. Scarcely any of them had ever tried to make a flower grow
before and they gradually thought of it a great deal. There was less
quarreling because conversation with neighbors all about a Blue Flower
gave no reason for hard words. The worst and idlest were curious about
it and every one tried experiments of his own. The children were
delighted and actually grew happy and rosy over their digging and
watering and care-taking. Gradually all sorts of curious things
happened. People who were growing Blue Flowers began to keep the ground
around about them in order. They did not like to see bits of paper and
rubbish lying about, so they cleared them away. One quite new thing
which occurred was that sometimes people even helped each other a
little. Cripples and those who were weak actually found that there were
stronger ones who would do things for them when their backs ached, and
it was hard to carry water or dig up weeds. No one in King Mordreth's
Land had ever helped another before.

The boy who was clever did more than all the rest. He gathered together
all the children he could and formed them into a band using the
passwords. In time it became quite like a little army. They called
themselves The Band of the Blue Flower, and each boy and girl was bound
to remember the passwords and apply them to all they did. So, often,
when a number of people were together and things began to go wrong, a
clear young voice would cry out somewhere like a silver battle cry: