Page:Little Ellie and Other Tales (1850).djvu/151

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The Daisy.

lost freedom, and fluttered against the iron wires of the cage. The little flower could not speak, could not say one consoling word to him, much as she wished to do so. Thus passed the whole forenoon.

“There is no water here,” said the imprisoned lark; “they are all gone out, and have forgotten me. Not a drop of water to drink! my throat is dry and burning! within me is fire and ice, and the air is so heavy! Oh, I shall die; I must leave the warm sunshine, and the fresh green trees, and all the beautiful things that God has created!” And saying these words, he pressed his beak into the cool piece of turf to refresh himself a little; and his eye fell on the Daisy, and the bird nodded to it and kissed it, and said: “You also must wither here, you poor little flower; you and the green turf here have been given me instead of the whole world, which I had out there! Every little blade of grass must be to me as a green tree, every one of your white leaves a fragrant flower. Ah, you only remind me how much I have lost!”

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