d so often said, that it was the
finest place in the world, and that if they led upright and
honorable lives, and their family increased, they and their children
might some day be taken to the nobleman's palace, to be boiled
black, and laid on a silver dish. And when they had finished speaking,
the old couple crept into their houses, and came out no more; for they
slept.

The young snail pair now ruled in the forest, and had a numerous
progeny. But as the young ones were never boiled or laid in silver
dishes, they concluded that the castle had fallen into decay, and that
all the people in the world were dead; and as nobody contradicted
them, they thought they must be right. And the rain fell upon the
burdock-leaves, to play the drum for them, and the sun shone to
paint colors on the burdock forest for them, and they were very happy;
the whole family were entirely and perfectly happy.

A LEAF FROM HEAVEN

High up in the clear, pure air flew an angel, with a flower
plucked from the garden of heaven. As he was kissing the flower a very
little leaf fell from it and sunk down into the soft earth in the
middle of a wood. It immediately took root, sprouted, and sent out
shoots among the other plants.

"What a ridiculous little shoot!" said one. "No one will recognize
it; not even the thistle nor the stinging-nettle."

"It must be a kind of garden plant," said another; and so they
sneered and despised the plant as a thing from a garden.

"Where are you coming?" said the tall thistles whose leaves were
all armed with thorns. "It is stupid nonsense to allow yourself to
shoot out in this way; we are not here to support you."

Winter came, and the plant was covered with snow, but the snow
glittered over it as if it had sunshine beneath as well as above.

When spring came, the plant appeared in full bloom: a more
beautiful object than any other plant in the forest. And now the
professor of botany presented himself, one who could explain his
knowledge in black and white. He examined and tested the plant, but it
did not belong to his system of botany, nor could he possibly find out
to what class it did belong. "It must be some degenerate species,"
said he; "I do not know it, and it is not mentioned in any system."

"Not known in any system!" repeated the thistles and the nettles.

The large trees which grew round it saw the plant and heard the
remarks, but they said not a word either good or bad, which is the
wisest