The White Lily. 19

 

because those whom he loved could not sport in the
sunshine.

Fortunately, it did not often rain in that lovely
land, and the children were always happy, laughing
aloud as they told one another that they had the
whole day to play in, the whole day in which to grow
as the flowers did, and open beneath the sun and
sleep beneath the moon.

Every day the children found new flowers to greet
them that had bloomed in the night while they had
‘been sleeping ; every day they made new friends and
learned new lessons.

And their friends were not only in the pretty
flower world.

They had companions also among the beasts of
the forest—noble stags, tender gazelles, beautiful
antelopes. Ruby was even sworn comrades with a
good-natured old brown bear, who used to come down
the mountains and take him away for long rambles
in places where he never would have dreamed of
going by himself.