SUMMER LAND. 181

“Yes,” said Rose-Bloom. “I had not been here very long then.
but I remember that time too he brought the butterflies, and the bees,
and the dragon-flies.”

‘What shall we ask for this year?” inquired Sweetbriar. ‘“ We
have nearly everything—nearly everything that heart can wish.”

‘We have quite everything,” said Sweet-Content. “I don’t long
for a thing on the face of the earth, except that my playmates should
not go away.”

“ You are selfish when you speak like that, Sweet-Content,” said
Rose-Bloom. “I know one delightful gift we have not got—one
thing that would make Summer Land quite, quite perfect. There is
not a bird here. Let us ask the Prince to bring the birds this time:
the doves, the thrushes, the robins, the larks. Let us hear them
singing in the trees, let us watch them in the spring-time building
their nests. Oh, think what it will be to waken on the summer
mornings and hear the birds singing!”

The others clapped their hands and cheered when Rose-Bloom
spoke about the birds.