andy
shallows or pebbly beds, laughing for very gladness, and kissing the
green banks whose fresh verdure they laved, whilst murmuring to them
their gladsome song:

'I'm free! oh, joy! I am free once again!
I have burst with delight my icy chain,
And gaily I flow to the open sea,
Joyously singing, I'm free! oh, I'm free!

I kiss the green banks as I glide along,
I woo the birds with my peaceful song;
The sunbeams they dance to my joyous strain,
Whilst gaily I fling their rays back again.'

And for us also came the appointed time, when we too had to leave the
home in which we had been so tenderly nurtured; we were to go, ready
prepared to do the work marked out for us.

But I did not wish to go; I feared to face a world unknown to me, and
fain would have lingered in the home so loved.

'Why must I leave you?' I asked of our gentle parent. 'I cannot bear the
separation.'

'My child,' she replied, with something of reproach in her soft voice,
'have you so soon forgotten the lesson I taught you, that He who created
all things, createth nothing in vain? Go forth upon the earth, and speak
in parables of His glorious works.'

'What can I teach?--I, so small, and of no repute!' I asked, still
doubting.

'Some lesson of His goodness to the children of men,' was her reply.

'But everything on earth appears to have its appointed mission; there
seems no work for me,' I urged in excuse.

'God will find something for even you to do,' she said; 'it may be only
a message from Him.'

'A message!' I repeated. 'What could I say to others? Already have all
the flowers their symbols: the Violet is the Hope flower, the
Heart's-ease speaks of Thought; what can we Snowdrops tell?'

Our mother did not answer--she left us to find what lessons we best
could teach.

So day by day we grew, stronger and stronger, gradually becoming better
fitted to perform the work allotted; until at last I appeared above the
ground--a slender green leaf!

Never shall I forget how cheerless looked the earth when first I came
above it, so dull and black, save where a few snowflakes had been
drifted by the wintry winds; all else was bleak and bare. There was not
a gleam of sunshine athwart the leaden sky to cheer us, nor a bird to
meet us with a friendly greeting, for even the robins kept so near the
houses for warmth and shelter, they came not to the spot where we grew,
alone and sad; and as to the tree