tle
seed.

"You are too prosy by far. I think our own feelings tell us what we
need. So good-by," exclaimed the self-reliant seed, as she motioned to
the wind to bear her away.

She thought her breath was leaving her, as she was borne through
the air, and wished she were back in the garden. But when she found
herself on the warm hill-side she felt reassured, and nestled herself
amid the soft grass, whose waving motion soon lulled her to sleep.

Now the two seeds which the gardener had laid on the ground were of
a very choice and rare kind; and he felt very sad that the wind should
have blown one away. He took the remaining one and laid it carefully
in the ground, with many hopes that it would spring up and bear rich
blossoms, which would yield more seed. That night a cold wind came
on; but the little seed in the warm bed did not feel it at all, while her
absent sister shook all night with the cold.

After what seemed a long time to the seed in the ground, something
like a new life came over her. There was a deeper pulsation through
her being, and a strong desire to shoot upward to the light and air. This
feeling deepened every hour.

"At this rate I shall soon be in the air, where I can see all that is
going on about me," she said joyfully. Then she felt very quiet, and fell
asleep. When she awoke she saw the gardener bending over her with a
joyful face. "When did this happen? How came I up here in the warm
sunlight?" the seed exclaimed to him.

"Because the wind did not bear you away, and I could put you in the
ground, is the reason why you are here. First out of sight, then to the
light, my little seed! But," he said sorrowfully, "I wish we had the
other one, for your kind is rare."

The plant then told the gardener that her sister purposely went away,
at which he wondered that she had power of motion until she became a
plant.

"Oh, she asked the wind to carry her," answered the fresh-growing
plant.

"If I knew where she had gone I'd search for her, and bring her back."

"She asked the wind to take her to yonder hill-side," said the plant,
hoping, oh, so much! that he would go and find the seed, and plant it
beside her, that she, too, might have the pleasure of becoming a plant as
beautiful as herself.

The gardener went towards the hills; but the seed saw him, and
begged the south wind to bear her away. And she took her on her wing
and wafted her many miles from home.

The gardener searched a long ti