th," he said, "I wish you could see the radiant change that
has come to pass. The air is full of light and warmth and fragrance. You
yourself are more beautiful than you were even in my dream. Listen and
hear the song of the birds. See the flowers blossoming in every field,
and even covering the rough peaks of the mountains. Should you be glad
if I had let all things stay as they were? Was I unkind to make you so
much more lovely than you were?"

Before the earth could answer, the sky began to complain. "You have
spread over earth a new cloak of green, and of course she is beautiful
with all her flowers and birds, but here am I, raised far above the
mountain peaks. I have no cloak, nor have I flowers and birds. Shining
One, give me a cloak."

"That will I do, and most gladly," replied the Shining One, and he
spread a soft cloak of dark blue over the sky, and in it many a star
sparkled and twinkled.

"That is very well in the night," said the heavens, "but it is not good
in the daytime, it is too gloomy. Give me another cloak for the day."
Then the Shining One spread a light blue cloak over the sky for the
daytime, and at last the sky was as beautiful as the earth.

Now both sky and earth were contented. "I did not know that the earth
was so radiant," said the sky. "I did not know that the sky was so
beautiful," said the earth. "I will send a message to tell her how
lovely she is," thought the sky, and he dropped down a gentle little
rain.

"I, too, will send a message," thought the earth, "and the clouds shall
carry it for me." That is why there is often a light cloud rising from
the earth in the morning. It is carrying a good-morning message from the
beautiful earth to the sky.

HOW SUMMER CAME TO THE EARTH.

PART I.

There was once a boy on the earth who was old enough to have a bow and
arrows, but who had never seen a summer. He had no idea how it would
look to have leaves on the trees, for he had never seen any such things.
As for the songs of birds, he may have heard them in his dreams, but he
never heard them when he was not asleep. If any one had asked, "Do you
not like to walk on the soft grass?" he would have answered, "What is
grass? I never saw any."

The reason why this boy had never heard of summer was because there had
never been a summer on the earth. Far to the north the earth was covered
with thick ice, and even farther south, where the boy lived, the ground
was rarely free from ice