A LEAF FROM THE SKY. 217

There came through the forest a poor innocent girl. Her heart
was pure, and her understanding was enlarged by faith. Her
whole inheritance was an old Bible; but out of its pages a voice
said to her, ‘‘ If people wish to do us evil, remember how it was
said of Joseph. They imagined evil in their hearts, but God
turned it to good. If we suffer wrong—if we are misunderstood
and despised—then we may recall the words of Him who was
purity and goodness itself, and who forgave and prayed for those
who buffeted and nailed Him to the cross.”

The girl stood still in front of the wonderful plant, whose great
leaves exhaled a sweet and refreshing fragrance,and whose flowers
glittered like a coloured flame in the sun ; and from each flower
there came a sound as though it concealed within itself a deep
fount of melody that thousands of years could not exhaust. With
pious gratitude the girl looked upon this beautiful work of the
Creator, and bent down one of the branches towards itself to
breathe in its sweetness; and a light arose in her soul. It seemed
to do her heart good ; and gladly would she have plucked a flower,
but she could not make up her mind to break one off, for it would
soon fade if she did so. Therefore the girl only took a single leaf,
and laid it in her Bible at home; and it lay there quite fresh,
always green, and never fading.

Among the pages of the Bible it was kept ; and with the Bible
it was laid under the young girl’s head, when, a few weeks after-
wards, she lay in her coffin, with the solemn calm of death on her
gentle face, as if the earthly remains bore the impress of the truth
that she now stood before her Creator.

But the wonderful plant still bloomed without in the forest. It
was almost like a tree to look upon ; andall the birds of passage
bowed before it.

“ That’s giving itself foreign airs now,” said the Thistles and
the Burdocks ; “ we never behave like that here.”

And the black snails actually spat at the flower.

Then came the swineherd. He was collecting thistles and
shrubs, to burn them for the ashes. The wonderful plant was
placed bodily in his bundle.

“Tt shall be made useful,” he said ; and so said, so done.

But soon afterwards, the King of the country was troubled with
a terrible depression of spirits. He was busy and industrious, but
that did him no good. They read him deep and learned books,
and then they read from the lightest and most superficial that
they could find; but it was of no use. Then one of the wise men
of the world, to whom they had applied, sent a messenger to tell
the King that there was one remedy to give him relief and to cure
him. He said:

‘In the King’s own country there grows in a forest a plant of
heavenly origin. Itsappearance is thus and thus, It cannot be
mistaken,”