Buttercup Gold | Page 8

tiny raindrops knocked at the door of Mother
Nature's great, brown house; and the birds called to the flowers to wake
up.
So the violets raised their strong, hardy leaves, lifted up their dainty
heads, and were glad because spring had come. While they were so
happy, a little girl came to the woods in search of wild flowers. "How
pretty those violets are," she said. "I wish I could stay and watch the
buds open, but I will take some of them with me and keep them in
water, and they will remind me of this sunny hill, and perhaps they will
blossom."
Then the violets were frightened and whispered, "Please don't take us!"
But Ruth did not hear them, and she pulled stem after stem till her
small hands were quite filled. Then she said good-by to the pretty place,
and the little violets said good-by, too.
When Ruth got home, she put the buds into a vase of water, and set
them in an open window where they could see the blue sky and feel the
kisses of the sunbeams. But the poor little violets drooped for a time,
they were so homesick, and whispered to each other, "Let us give up
and die!" A beautiful canary in a cage over their heads sang "cheer up!
chirrup,!" but they would not listen to him at first.
By and by they said, "Why do you sing that to us? How can we be
happy away from our beautiful home?"
Still the bird sang "cheer up! chirrup! The sun is smiling at you and I
am singing to you. We are trying to make you glad. How nice it would
be if you would only blossom and make some one happy instead of
hanging your heads and trying to die. Do you think I like to be shut up
here? If some one would leave the door of my cage open, I would
spread my wings and fly out of the window, far away to the green
woods and the blue sky. But while I am here, I may as well sing and be
glad. Cheer up! chirrup!"
"Perhaps he is right," said the buds, and they lifted up their heads and
began to grow. One bright spring morning Mother Nature passed by the
window and gave them each a lovely violet cap. Then they were, glad,
and Ruth was happy, too, because her buds had blossomed.
The cheery canary sang his sweetest carol to them, and the whole day

was bright because Mother Nature's little violet children had tried their
best to be happy and so had made others happy, too.
As the great red sun went down into the west, he heard the happy bird
still singing "cheer up! chirrup!"

Baby Caterpillar
Baby Caterpillar was tired. All summer long she had been travelling
slowly through the green world where she lived, and feeding on the
green leaves that grew near her home., Now Autumn had come and
Mother Nature had given a holiday to the leaves, who put on their new
dresses of red and gold and played tag with the breezes. Baby
Caterpillar wanted to play, too, but could not run so fast as the happy
little leaves, and she grew very tired and thought she would take a nap.
So she found a cozy place among the branches of a grape vine, and
made herself a soft, silky blanket. Then she rolled herself away within
it, and then, in her queer little cradle, went to sleep.
One night, late in the fall, Jack Frost came over the hill. He spied the
cradle swinging to and fro, and began to play roughly with it, for he is a
roguish little fellow, and touches everything that comes in his way. But
the warm blanket hid the little sleeper so that Jack could not find her.
By and by King Winter came, bringing beautiful snow blankets to
Mother Nature's flower babies. He gently rocked the cradle as he
passed, and whispered, "Sleep, baby, sleep! You have no need of my
blankets."
At last Spring came with the sunbeams, the best and merriest of Mother
Nature's helpers. They awoke the flowers from their long winter nap,
and called to the birds and the brooks to begin their songs. When they
came to the little brown cradle, they stopped to rest, and Baby
Caterpillar began to get very warm under the thick blanket. She woke
up and stretched herself, and her cradle broke, and she came out to
greet the Spring. But what a change! Instead of the old dingy dress that
she went to sleep in, she now had a beautiful yellow one; and, instead
of crawling among the leaves, she flew up and away into the sweet
spring