garments or sing to empty words, I
have sought the help of many wiser than I in this knowledge born of
sympathy with nature. So this little book is not entirely a
fairy-tale._

_To those who would follow me along the same by-ways, I wish to say
that I owe a great deal to the Reverend Hilderic Friend for his ever
delightful look on "Flowers and Flower Lore."_

_E. C._

* * * * *

[Illustration: CHRISTMAS ROSE]

A FLOWER BOOK.

When the snow lies thick on the ground and all the streams that babble
in summer lie still in their houses of ice, you think, I daresay, that
the flowers are asleep, and that nothing can wake them before the
spring?

But I know of a wood where the little elves and sprites and the delicate
fairies dance in a ring in the moonlight, and I will tell you of what
happens there at twelve o'clock on the first night of every year.

The clock in the cathedral tower booms out twelve solemn strokes, and
all the church bells peal a welcome to the New Year. That is the signal
for the fairies to come down on a moonbeam--with their white dresses
shining and their long yellow hair streaming.

[Illustration: IVY]

[Illustration: WINTER JASMINE]

Most beautiful of them all is Rusialka, the queen of fairies and elves.
She wears a necklet of dewdrops, and dew-drops sparkle in her dress
and in her hair. She glides softly over the snow, and all the fairies
follow her to a great elder bush that grows in the middle of the little
wood. She knocks once and calls:

"Lady Elder! are you within?"

And the tree shoots out its green buds and the tender leaves unfold
themselves.

Then again the fairy Rusialka knocks and calls:

"Lady Elder! Lady Elder! are you within?"

And the sweet white blossoms open overhead, and a gentle rain of flowers
falls upon the fairies.

For the third time Rusialka calls:

"Lady Elder! Lady Elder! Lady Elder! are you within?"

And then the tree opens slowly, and the Lady Elder appears. She is very
old, for she is the Mother of all the fairies and elves.

[Illustration: MICHAELMAS DAISY]

[Illustration: SNOWDROP]

"What is it you want of me, my children?" she asks, in a voice like a
silver bell.

And all the fairies curtsey very long and low, and they answer her:

"The New Year is come, Lady Elder; and we want you to grant us leave to
wake the