IN THE SPRING-TIME GARDEN
"Oh-ooo!"
It was a most delighted little cry. In fact, Phyllis was a most delighted little girl. Right here in her own
garden was the
first spring blossom. Phyllis's bright brown eyes shone eagerly, and her brown gold curls blew wildly as she rushed to the door to tell the family.
"It was my secret!" cried the little girl, dancing first on one foot and then on the other. "I've known for whole days that it was coming!"
"What is it?" cried Jack. "When did it arrive? Who brought it? What is it?"
"I think the
sunshine brought it," said Phyllis. "I think that warm rain yesterday helped bring it. It is a little
snowdrop. Come and see how lovely it is! How it hangs its pretty nodding head and how it lets the wind rock it!"
After the family had admired the little messenger of spring and gone back into the house, Phyllis still lingered.
"You are very lovely," said Phyllis, stooping lower over the little cluster of
blossoms.
"I am so glad you have come. You see, when I put those dry-looking bulbs in the ground last fall, it seemed hard to believe that anything so dainty and delicate and sweet as you could come from them."
The snowdrop nodded sweetly at Phyllis's words of praise.
"I always come with the earliest spring sunshine," said the
snowdrop.
"I wish I knew all about you," said the little girl, wistfully. "The birds and the bees have told me their stories. I should so love to know about the blossoms which come every summer to make me happy."
"I am a very simple flower," said the snowdrop, "but I have lived in the world for countless summers. If you like, I will tell you what I can of myself."
Phyllis drew closer to the little plant and softly touched it with her finger-tips.
"Do tell me," she said.
"I am one of the
blossoms of spring," said the snowdrop. "I come to tell you that the long winter is over; that the summer will soon be here.
"I usually bear my blossoms in an umbel, though there is sometimes but a single blossom on a stalk."
"What is an umbel?" Phyllis wondered.
"An umbel, Phyllis, is a number of
blossoms starting from a common centre on a single stalk."
"Your petals are not all the same size," said Phyllis. "I notice that though you really have six petals, the three outer ones are large and lap over the smaller inner petals. The outer petals are notched. How snowy white they are, and what a tender green are your grasslike leaves."
But the snowdrop only nodded its bowed head, and said not another word.
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