mountain stream.

Then he handed the lad a small, very small seed, and, leading him a
short distance, bade him make a small hole in the ground and place
the seed within it. He did so. And the old man bent over and kissed
his fair brow as he smoothed the earth above the seed's
resting-place, and told him that he must water it and watch it, and
it would spring up and become a fair thing in his sight.

'Twas hard for the child to believe this; yet he did believe, for he
knew that his friend was true.

Night came; and, as he lay on his little couch, the child dreamed of
that seed, and he had a vision of the future which passed with the
shades of the night.

Morning dawned, and he hastened to water and to watch the spot where
the seed was planted.

It had not come up; yet he believed the good old man, and knew that
it would.

All day long he was bending over it, or talking with his aged
companion about the buried seed.

A few days passed, then a little sprout; burst from the ground; and
the child clapped his hands, and shouted and danced.

Daily it grew fairer in the sight of the child, and rose higher and
higher. And the old man led him once more to the spot, and told him