pastimes. Sometimes we mounted up high into the air, and peeped at the
stars. Then we sank plump down deep below, and looked how the coral
builders work till they are tired, that they may reach the light of day
at last.

"But I was conceited, and thought myself much better than my sisters.
And so, one day, when the sun rose out of the sea, I clung fast to one
of his hot beams and thought how I should reach the stars and become one
of them.

"But I had not ascended far when the sunbeam shook me off, and, in spite
of all I could say or do, let me fall into a dark cloud. And soon a
flash of fire darted through the cloud, and now I thought I must surely
die; but the cloud laid itself down softly upon the top of a mountain,
and so I escaped.

"Now I thought I should remain hidden, when, all on a sudden, I slipped
over a round pebble, fell from one stone to another, down into the
depths of the mountain. At last it was pitch dark and I could neither
see nor hear anything.

"Then I found, indeed, that 'pride goeth before a fall,' for, though I
had already laid aside all my unhappy pride in the cloud, my punishment
was to remain for some time in the heart of the mountain. After
undergoing many purifications from the hidden virtues of metals and
minerals, I was at length permitted to come up once more into the free
and cheerful air, and to gush from this rock and journey with this happy
stream. Now will I run back to my sisters in the Ocean, and there wait
patiently till I am called to something better."

So said the water-drop to the child, but scarcely had she finished her
story, when the root of a For-Get-Me-Not caught the drop and sucked her
in, that she might become a floweret, and twinkle brightly as a blue
star on the green firmament of earth.

THE SPRING BEAUTY

AN OJIBBEWAY LEGEND

BY HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT (ADAPTED)

An old man was sitting in his lodge, by the side of a frozen stream. It
was the end of winter, the air was not so cold, and his fire was
nearly out. He was old and alone. His locks were white with age, and he
trembled in every joint. Day after day passed, and he heard nothing but
the sound of the storm sweeping before it the new-fallen snow.

One day while his fire was dying, a handsome young man approached and
entered the lodge. His cheeks were red, his eyes sparkled. He walked
with a quick, light step. His forehead was bound with a wreath of
sweet-grass, and he carried a bunch of fragra