But there is a bit of poetic history that ought not to be forgotten, for it was a sprig of the lovely broom bush--call it by the daintier name of heath if you will--such as in some of its varieties grows wild in nearly every country in Europe, a tough little flowering evergreen, symbol of humility, which was once embroidered on the robes, worn in the helmet, and sculptured on the effigies of a royal house of England. Which of the stories of its origin is true, perhaps no one at this distant day can determine; but whether a penitent pilgrim of the family was scourged by twigs of it--the _plantagenesta_--or a gallant hunter plucked a spray of it and put in his helmet, it is certain that the humble plant gave the stately name of "Plantagenet" to twelve sovereigns of that kingdom; and their battle-cry--which meant to them conquest and dominion, but has a very practical sound to us, and a specially prosaic meaning to one like the blind broom-maker of this simple story--was this: "_Plant the broom! Plant the broom!_" TALKING BY SIGNALS. When boys live some distance apart, it is pleasant to be able to communicate with each other by means of signals. Many and ingenious have been the methods devised by enthusiastic boys for this purpose. But it can be brought much nearer perfection than has yet been done, by means of a very simple system. At the age of fourteen I had an intimate friend who lived more than a mile away, but whose home was in plain sight from mine. As we could not always be together when we wished, we invented a system of signalling requiring a number of different colored flags; but we were not quite satisfied with it, for we could send but few communications by its use. Then, when we came to test it, we found the distance was too great to allow of the different colors being distinguished. The white one was plainly visible. It seemed necessary, therefore, that only white flags should be used. We studied over the problem long and hard, with the following result. We each made five flags by tacking a small stick, eighteen inches long, to both ends of a strip of white cloth,[B] two feet long by ten inches wide. Then we nailed loops of leather to the side of our fathers' barns, so that, when the sticks were inserted in them, the flags would be in the following positions: The upper left hand position was numbered 1, upper right 2, lower right 3, lower left 4, centre 5. Notice, there was no difference in the _flags_; the _positions_ they occupied determined the communication. Thirty combinations of these positions can be made: 1--1 2--2 4--1 2 3--1 4 5--1 2 3 5 2--1 3--2 5--1 2 4--2 3 5--1 2 4 5 3--1 4--3 4--1 2 5--2 4 5--1 3 4 5 4--1 5--3 5--1 3 4--3 4 5--2 3 4 5 5--2 3--4 5--1 3 5--1 2 3 4--1 2 3 4 5.