ow delightful it was to see the sun
red and glorious between the black trunks of the pine-trees. Then he
looked up into the abyss of clear sky overhead, and thought how
beautiful it was to see the little frail clouds folded over one another
like a belt of rose-colored waves. Then he drew still nearer to the
water, and saw how they were all reflected down there among the leaves
and flowers of the lilies; and he wished he were a painter, for he said
to himself, 'I am sure there are no trees in the world with such
beautiful leaves as these pines; I am sure there are no other clouds in
the world so lovely as these; I know this is the sweetest piece of water
in the world, and, if I could paint it, every one else would know it
too.' He stood still for awhile, watching the water-lilies as they
closed their leaves for the night, and listening to the slight sound
they made when they dipped their heads under water. 'The sun has been
playing tricks with these lilies as well as with the clouds,' he said to
himself, 'for when I passed by in the morning they swayed about like
floating snowballs, and now there is not a bud of them that has not got
a rosy side. I must gather one, and see if I cannot make a drawing of
it.' So he gathered a lily, sat down with it in his hand, and tried very
hard to make a correct sketch of it in a blank leaf of his copy-book. He
was far more patient than usual, but he succeeded so little to his own
satisfaction, that at length he threw down the book, and, looking into
the cup of his lily, said to it, in a sorrowful voice, 'Ah, what use is
it my trying to copy anything so beautiful as you are? How much I wish I
were a painter!'

"As he said these words he felt a slight quivering in the flower; and,
while he looked, the cluster of stamens at the bottom of the cup floated
upward, and glittered like a crown of gold; the dewdrops which hung upon
them changed into diamonds before his eyes; the white petals flowed
together; the tall pistil was a golden wand; and the next moment a
beautiful little creature stood upon his hand, clad in a robe of the
purest white, and scarcely taller than the flower from which she sprung.

[Illustration: "THE NEXT MOMENT A BEAUTIFUL LITTLE CREATURE STOOD UPON
HIS HAND."]

"Struck with astonishment, the boy kept silence. She lifted up her face,
and opened her lips more than once. He expected her to say some
wonderful thing; but, when at length she did speak, she only said,
'Chil