NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 



scarlet fruit the scanty soil from which it springs. Let us 

 prize them, for from henceforth till the tardy Spring revisits 

 the earth its treasures of leaf and blossom will be to us as a 

 sealed book bound up in ice and snow. No more are we 

 tempted by verdant wreaths of glossy leaves or gaily tinted 

 flowers. We must content ourselves with wintry landscapes, 

 snowflakes and frost-flowers, and the crystal casing that 

 covers the slender branches of the birches and beeches or 

 hangs in diamond drops on the tassels of the spruces and 

 balsam firs. 



Tread softly, traveller, lest the transient glory of our 

 frost-flowers dissolve at your feet. Emblems are they of 

 earthly beauty, earthly riches and earthly fame; but there 

 are brighter gems and fairer flowers of heavenly growth that 

 fade not away but which will flourish in the Paradise of 

 God more glorious than the fairest beauties of our earthly 

 home. 



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