216 Language Through Nature 



it could breathe. And what a delicious breath that 

 was ! It was rather cold, but so refreshing. The 

 flower could see nothing, for it was not quite a 

 flower yet, only a plant; and they never see till their 

 eyes come, that is, till they open their blossoms, then 

 they are flowers quite. So it grew and grew, and 

 kept its head up very steadily, meaning to see the 

 sky the first thing, and leave the earth quite behind 

 as well as beneath it. But somehow or other, though 

 why it could not tell, it felt very much inclined to 

 cry. At length it opened its eyes. It was morning, 

 and the sky was over its head; but alas ! itself was 

 no rose only a tiny white flower. It felt yet more 

 inclined to hang down its head and to cry; but it still 

 resisted, and tried hard to open its eye wide, and to 

 hold its head upright, and to look full at the sky. 



"I will be a star of Bethlehem at least! " said the 

 flower to itself. 



But it had felt very heavy; and a cold wind 

 rushed over it, and bowed it down towards the 

 earth. And the flower saw that the time of the 

 singing of birds was not come, that the snow cov- 

 ered the whole land, and that there was not a single 

 flower in sight but itself. And it half-closed its 

 leaves in terror and the dismay of loneliness. 



