ture in the moonlight.

"There the ladies wear queerly draped gowns and their veiled faces
leave only their bright eyes exposed.

"Afterward I bloomed in a country where everybody seems happy, and that
is the land I love best. The children in that country look like little
stuffed dolls in their many petticoats and close-fitting bonnets around
their chubby little faces. Their little shoes clatter over the stones,
sounding like many horses in the distance. There I was best loved and
grew in profusion and beauty around the quaint homes of these
quaint-looking people.

"Ah, me, it is a long way from here," sighed the Tulip, "and I often
long to hear the sound of the Zuider Zee as I did once long ago."

"Why, she has gone to sleep," said Martha as the Tulip closed and
drooped her head, "and I must go in the house. Grandmother will be
looking for me."

"Will you come again?" asked the flowers; "there are many more that
have stories to tell."

"I shall be glad to hear them," said Martha, "for I had no idea that
flowers could tell such interesting stories."

WHEN JACK FROST WAS YOUNG

[Illustration: When Jack Frost was Young]

Not that he is old now, for Jack is a snappy, bright fellow, and will
never really grow old--that is, in anything but experience.

And that is exactly what this story is about, the time when Jack Frost
was young in experience and would not listen to his mother, old Madam
North Wind.

One morning he awoke and hustled about with a will, and Madam North
Wind, who had not yet begun to arise early in the morning, was aroused
from her slumbers.

"Whatever are you doing, making such a noise at this time in the
morning?" she asked her son.

"It is time I was on my round," said Jack Frost, in a snappy, sharp
tone. "I mean to begin early and not let all the farmers get ahead of
me and get their corn and pumpkins and such things in the barn.

"They will have to look out for me, I tell you, mother. I am a sharp,
snappy young fellow, and they must know it."

"You go back to your bed," said old Madam North Wind. "It is not time
for frosts yet. You should not begin your rounds for another two weeks
at least."

"Oh, mother, you are so old-fashioned," said Jack Frost. "I want to be
up and doing. Those farmers think they know everything there is to
know about the weather, and I want to show them I am too smart for
them. I shall start off to-night."

"You listen to me if you do not wi