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. n 
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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