e dewdrop were. Dear
me! how he piped, and chirruped, and
throstled! I thought the Nightingale
had done wonders in that way; but it
was nothing to the Thrush. He doubtless
was under the impression that the
Dewdrop was sound asleep, and needed
no ordinary efforts in the way of
rousing. I am sure if one could have
dived under the yellow feathers, the
little throat must have been purple.

After these musical preliminaries,
our new friend (Songster No. 2) ventured
by-and-by to come nearer. But,
in doing so, he could hardly believe
his eyes, specially after what the
Nightingale had told him.

"A teardrop" indeed! There was
not a bit of the tear about it. Where
had been the Nightingale's eyes? It
was something at all events very
like a bright, unmistakable, beautiful
diamond on which the Thrush looked.
How it glistened and sparkled; and
that too with all the prismatic colours!
The spectator could only (what was an
effort to any member of the Thrush
family) gaze in mute wonder.

"What in all the world can you be,
you lovely, silent sleeper on the rose-leaf,
with your round crystal cheeks?
Dewdrop we thought you were; teardrop
you say you are: I cannot think
you are either. If you are not a
diamond set in rubies--stolen, for
anything I know, from yesterday's
rainbow--you look the thing uncommonly
well."

"I am indeed a diamond," answered
the Dewdrop. "Look at me," said the
little gleaming dot, with the air of an
aristocrat; "do you not say I am fit for
a monarch's crown? And it _is_ a
monarch's crown I am presently to be
set in. Every day I meet the Queen
of the Morning.--Stay," it suddenly exclaimed,
"I see her even now advancing
with her rosy feet, 'sowing the earth
with pearls.' See, for yourself, how the
few stars which still linger in the sky,
and which with their glittering torches
lighted her out of the Eastern Gate,
are paling every minute behind her!
She says, of all the jewels in her tiara
there is not one she is fonder of, or
prouder of, than me. Away, away,
little bird," stammered out the Dewdrop,
with some nervous twitchings
presently to be accounted for; "I must
prepare to meet this Queen Aurora.
But," it added in a kind of afterthought,
"the procession will soon be
over; come back shortly and see me, if
you please." The keen diamond eye
twinkled with a humorous, comical
expression when these last words were
uttered; as much as to say, "I shall
manage to cheat you, old fellow,
wo