28 Lily and Water-Lily.

She never wanted to catch them; and when the
handsome kingfisher stood on the bank and put his
great beak down and snapped up the little fish for
his dinner, she was very sorry, although, of course,
she knew that Mother Earth had given him leave to
do that, and so he was not to be blamed.

But to-day Pearl was very late.

And it was not because she was in the fields
with the mouse, because the mouse had missed her
too at breakfast-time, and had scampered away to
his friend, the lily, to know if there were any news
of her,

He had had a particularly nice breakfast ready for

Pearl—a luscious arbutus berry and two sweet little |

filberts. What could any little girl want. more?
And he was very much disappointed that Pearl had
not come to eat it.

To be sure, as he told the lily, she might be tired
and still sleeping on the bed which the thrushes had
made for her.

There had been a turtledove’s wedding in the glen

a