markable orchestra. Following these were an
immense number of flowers, all dancing--violets, daisies, lilies of the
valley, and others which it was a delight to see.

At last all the happy flowers wished one another good night. Little Ida,
too, crept back to bed, to dream of all that she had seen.

When she rose next morning she went at once to her little table to see
if her flowers were there. She drew aside the curtains of her little
bed; yes, there lay the flowers, but they were much more faded to-day
than yesterday. Sophie too was in the drawer, but she looked very
sleepy.

"Do you remember what you were to say to me?" asked Ida of her.

But Sophie looked quite stupid and had not a word to say.

"You are not kind at all," said Ida; "and yet all the flowers let you
dance with them."

Then she chose from her playthings a little pasteboard box with birds
painted on it, and in it she laid the dead flowers.

"That shall be your pretty casket," said she; "and when my cousins come
to visit me, by and by, they shall help me to bury you in the garden,
in order that next summer you may grow again and be still more
beautiful."

The two cousins were two merry boys, Gustave and Adolphe. Their father
had given them each a new crossbow, which they brought with them to show
to Ida. She told them of the poor flowers that were dead and were to be
buried in the garden. So the two boys walked in front, with their bows
slung across their shoulders, and little Ida followed, carrying the dead
flowers in their pretty coffin. A little grave was dug for them in the
garden. Ida first kissed the flowers and then laid them in the earth,
and Adolphe and Gustave shot with their crossbows over the grave, for
they had neither guns nor cannons.

[Illustration]

THE STEADFAST TIN SOLDIER

THERE were once five and twenty tin soldiers. They were brothers, for
they had all been made out of the same old tin spoon. They all
shouldered their bayonets, held themselves upright, and looked straight
before them. Their uniforms were very smart-looking--red and blue--and
very splendid. The first thing they heard in the world, when the lid was
taken off the box in which they lay, was the words "Tin soldiers!" These
words were spoken by a little boy, who clapped his hands for joy. The
soldiers had been given him because it was his birthday, and now he was
putting them out upon the table.

Each was exactly like the rest to a hair, excep