en a chaplet to wear on
the head: it was quite a gala of green links and yellow flowers. The
eldest children carefully gathered the stalks on which hung the white
feathery ball, formed by the flower that had run to seed; and this
loose, airy wool-flower, which is a beautiful object, looking like the
finest snowy down, they held to their mouths, and tried to blow away
the whole head at one breath: for their grandmother had said that
whoever could do this would be sure to get new clothes before the year
was out. So on this occasion the despised flower was actually raised
to the rank of a prophet or augur.

"Do you see?" said the sunbeam. "Do you see the beauty of those
flowers? do you see their power?"

"Yes, over children," replied the apple branch.

And now an old woman came into the field, and began to dig with a
blunt shaftless knife round the root of the dandelion plant, and
pulled it up out of the ground. With some of the roots she intended to
make tea for herself; others she was going to sell for money to the
druggist.

"But beauty is a higher thing!" said the apple tree branch. "Only the
chosen few can be admitted into the realm of beauty. There is a
difference among plants, just as there is a difference among men."

And then the sunbeam spoke of the boundless love of the Creator, as
manifested in the creation, and of the just distribution of things in
time and in eternity.

"Yes, yes, that is your opinion," the apple branch persisted.

But now some people came into the room, and the beautiful young
countess appeared, the lady who had placed the apple branch in the
transparent vase in the sunlight. She carried in her hand a flower, or
something of the kind. The object, whatever it might be, was hidden by
three or four great leaves, wrapped around it like a shield, that no
draught or gust of wind should injure it; and it was carried more
carefully than the apple bough had ever been. Very gently the large
leaves were now removed, and lo, there appeared the fine feathery seed
crown of the despised dandelion! This it was that the lady had plucked
with the greatest care, and had carried home with every precaution, so
that not one of the delicate feathery darts that form its downy ball
should be blown away. She now produced it, quite uninjured, and
admired its beautiful form, its peculiar construction, and its airy
beauty, which was to be scattered by the wind.

"Look, with what singular beauty Providence has