ragile, is very graceful--so there!'

You may imagine the laughter that ensued as she ended with that emphatic
'so there!' laughter which could not be suppressed, although she plainly
showed her anger at their behaviour; they could not help it, so
flower-bells shook and leaves fluttered with mirth, even Quaker grass
quivered with merriment.

'I would advise you to be more contented,' said a Honeysuckle, as she
looked down upon the ambitious little Flower from her own elevated
position; 'let me tell you it is not always those who are highest up in
the world are the happiest; they feel the cold winds quite as keenly,
perhaps more so.'

'Ah, but I want to live in a conservatory or a greenhouse. I feel I am
fitted for that position,' grumbled the other; 'in such a place I
should be more seen, and consequently more admired and appreciated.'

'What vanity!' sneered wild Vetch, who was somewhat ambitious also,
seeing he tried to climb up as high as he could.

An angry retort was on the lips of the one addressed, but Honeysuckle
interposed, by saying kindly,--

'Well, well, we shall see,--perhaps your position may be altered one
day, and then you will be able to show us how you bear prosperity. Many
flowers I have known transplanted to conservatories, thinking they would
prove to be exotics, but I have heard that they generally withered in
the heated atmosphere to which they were removed, and did not come to
perfection when taken from their native soil.'

'I am sure I should enjoy the change,' was the answer vouchsafed to this
friendly warning. 'I know I am not in my proper sphere; such beauty as
mine was never surely intended by Nature for a hedgerow.'

'We shall see!' cried several Blossoms, who felt indignant at her
contemptuous way of speaking. 'Your parents were no doubt'--

'Exotics, I am convinced,' she said.

'Then how came you here among such humble company?' asked merry Ragged
Robin, who was fond of teasing.

She deigned no reply, but looked him scornfully up and down, to his
intense amusement.

'Let her alone!' cried a sturdy Bramble; 'she will buy her experience
with sighs and tears, I fear.'

So, acting upon Bramble's advice, they did leave her alone to muse over
her ambitious hopes and desires, whilst they, contented and happy with
their lowly fate, opened their buds to the bright sunshine, which beams
alike upon the high or humble.

And very pretty looked that hedgerow on this same morning. The f