The White Lily. 57

 

her hair, and the lily «guessed that she must have
been lying down among the poppies, and he knew
what a strange influence poppies have upon children ;
and he was all the more sad because he was afraid
that Pearl must be even more unhappy than she was
yesterday.

He wished that ne could do something to cure
Pearl, and he thought that there was something he
could do, but he did not know how to do it.

The day wore on once more towards evening.

-It had been fair and glorious, but to the eyes of
the children there had still been that unseen cloud
before the sun, which had dimmed the whole of the
world.

The beasts of the forest, the birds of the air, and
the little animals of the wood shunned them still;

“~the mouse was nowhere to be seen, and the fone

would not come to be played with.

The flowers alone stood where they had always
stood, and behaved as they had always done, and the
children took their fun of the flowers.