The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1937-03-26
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THE LEGEND OF
THE MOON FLOWER
As TOLD TO TWO LITTLE
CHILDREN

As TOLD TO TWO LITTLE
CHILDREN
seeeeeeeeeeeesesaeeesaes
Long, long ago, when the worls
was very young. lie Bon Diet
looked down from His throne OF
Y high into the velvet blackness o.
the night, and decided the dark
mess must be iightened, so that i
would be more endurable fol
mortals. So he took handful Of
stars and scattered them over the
heavens so that man could NOR,
readily see his way about. Then
he found that man measured time
by calling IN Day and Night, and
that Day was the time for most
Of mans labour so lie Bon Dieu
created the splendid sun with his
crown and robes of gold, and set
him in the heavens and arranged
that he should make his appear
ance over the earth's rim each
morning to give more light to man
By Day.
After this mans work became
so difficult and complicated that
more time was required for him
to work in than to rest in, so lie
Bon D.su thought of lighting up
the Night with the beautiful Lady
Moon to show her si.very face
when the sun should disappear or
'set', as Wen call it. This an
eered the sun at first, and made
him jealous and he sulked and
would not show his face for sew
eral days.
But one evening, as the Lady
Moon was looking her lovliest with
her trailing draperies all silver
spun and shining wells giistening
across the heavens and on the sea,
she saw the sun as he was sinking
out of sight, with his gorgeous
golden mantle on his shoulders,
and his sheaf of arrows of gold IN
his right hard and as he saw the
beauty of the Lady Moon he
lo0sed one of these and shot it at
her and pierced her h art and she
straightway Fell in eve with him
at first sight-as womsn viii, you
know, and sighed and hid her face
in her argent wells aid vowed to
see him next evening and speak
with him at the same hour.
But lie Bon Dieu had become
dispisased with the sun because
he had grown so powerful and SO
arrogant and so he decreed that
the sun and moon should follow
each other around the earth but
never meet, even as Night fol-
lows Day.
And so the moon appears just
in time to see her loved one dis
appear beyond the far horizon,
and the Lady Moon never, never
met him and talked with him or
warmed herself in the glow of his
love, as she had planned. So she
nursed her hopeless love and grew
paler and thinner-as women will
when they grieve. But the sun,
as he saw her lovely, shining face
each night, put on his most beau
tiful colored cloaks and surround
ed himself with such splendor that
the Lady Moon became more in
love with him than ever and real
izing, finally, the hopelessness of
their ever meeting, shed bitter
tears which fell on the earth in
the fields and empty spaces where
no beauty was, and-what do you
| Think
Where each tear fell, a beauti-
full white flower doomed, which
we call the Moon Flower. 1t lasts
only until dawn and fades as al
beauty fades. So when the moon
is sadly looked down upon the
earth at night and sorrowing for
the sun, with only the stars for
company, you may go into the
fields and catrer these lovely, sill
very, white flowers-her tears.
Of course, my children, this is
only a legend, you now, and per-
hars one day lie Bon Dieu, be-
cause he is kind, will relent, and
arrange that the sun and moon
shall meet and declare their love
but you and I will not see this,
I fear.
BENNA BENTINO.
Mrs. Robert Tryon Nenner)
Key West, Fla,
March &c, 1887.