Nature's Violet Children

Once on a sunny hill in the woods grew a little colony of
violets. They had slept quietly through the long winter, tucked
up snug and warm in the soft, white snowblankets that King Winter
had sent Mother Nature for her flower babies. Jack Frost had gone
pouting over the hills because the little sunbeams would not play
with him, and spoiled his fancy pictures. The 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