ible
to mortal eyes, floated above the children. They were even lighter and
more delicate than the blue flowers from which they were born; and as
the flames died out and nothing remained of the paper but black ashes,
these little beings danced upon it, and wherever they touched it, bright
red sparks appeared.

"The children are all out of school, and the schoolmaster was the last
of all," said the children. It was good fun, and they sang over the dead
ashes:

"Snip, snap, snurre,
Basse lurre.
The song is ended."

But the little invisible beings said, "The song is never ended; the most
beautiful is yet to come."

But the children could neither hear nor understand this; nor should
they, for children must not know everything.

[Illustration]

THE DAISY

NOW listen. Out in the country, close by the roadside, stood a pleasant
house; you have seen one like it, no doubt, very often. In front lay a
little fenced-in garden, full of blooming flowers. Near the hedge, in
the soft green grass, grew a little daisy. The sun shone as brightly and
warmly upon her as upon the large and beautiful garden flowers, so the
daisy grew from hour to hour. Every morning she unfolded her little
white petals, like shining rays round the little golden sun in the
center of the flower. She never seemed to think that she was unseen down
in the grass or that she was only a poor, insignificant flower. She felt
too happy to care for that. Merrily she turned toward the warm sun,
looked up to the blue sky, and listened to the lark singing high in the
air.

One day the little flower was as joyful as if it had been a great
holiday, although it was only Monday. All the children were at school,
and while they sat on their benches learning their lessons, she, on her
little stem, learned also from the warm sun and from everything around
her how good God is, and it made her happy to hear the lark expressing
in his song her own glad feelings. The daisy admired the happy bird who
could warble so sweetly and fly so high, and she was not at all
sorrowful because she could not do the same.

"I can see and hear," thought she; "the sun shines upon me, and the wind
kisses me; what else do I need to make me happy?"

Within the garden grew a number of aristocratic flowers; the less scent
they had the more they flaunted. The peonies considered it a grand thing
to be so large, and puffed themselves out to be larger