THE SNOW DROP

     The snow lay deep, for it was winter time. The winter winds blew cold, but there was one  house whereall was snug and warm. and in the house lay a little flower - in its bulb it lay, under the earth and the snow.
     One day the rain fell and it trickled through the ice and snow down into the ground. And presently a sunbeam, pointed and slender, pierced down through the earth, and tapped onthe bulb.
     "Come in," said the flower.
     " I can't do that," said the sunbeam-"I;m not strong enough to lift the latch. I shall be when springtime comes."
     "When will it be spring?" asked the flower of every litle sunbeam that rapped on its door. But for a long time it was winter. The ground was still covered with snow, and every night there was ice in the water. The flower grew quite tired of waiting.
      "How lonh it is!" it said. "I feel quite cramped. I must stretch my self and rise up a little. I must lift the latch, and look out, and say' good morning' to the spring."
      So the flower pushed and pushed. The walls were softened by rain and warmed by te little sunbeams, so the flower shot up from under the snow, with a pale green bud on itsstalk and some long narrow leaves on either side. It was bitting cold.
      "You are a little too erly," said the wind ad the weather-but every sunbeam sanng,"Welcome," and the flower raised its head from the snow and unfolded itself-pure and white, and decked with green stripes.
       It was weather to freeze it to pieces-such a delicate little flower, but it was stronger than any one knew. It stood in its white drees in the white snow, bowing its head when the snowflakes fell, and raising it again to smile at the sunbeams. and every day it grew sweeter.
       "Oh!" shouted the children, as they ran into the garden. "see the snowdrop! there it stands so pretty, so beautiful-the first, the only one!"