THE MOUNTAIN BROOK.
Close beside the pathway ran a little murmuring brook, foaming and
sparkling over its rocky bed, gliding just as merrily through the dark
shadows as when its course lay open to the sun. It seemed as if fairy
Contentment must have bathed in it, or planted some of the flowers along
its brink; never was there a merrier little stream.
"I know what you're singing about," said Violet; "I know, Mr. Brook;
you're trying to make me think you can run down the hill faster than any
one else. Let us see;" and away she flew, and away the brook went after
her, and by her side flew the fairies, and over her head the birds--all
singing, "Success to Violet!" while the leaves "clapped their little
hands" in favor of their friend the brook, and the young birds looked
over the edge of their nests to find out what in the world this stir
could be about.
Nobody ever knew which won the race. Up in the clouds the birds sang,
"Good, good, good; it was Violet, Violet!" while the leaves whispered,
"No, no, no, no; it was the brook!" But Violet and the brook were as
good friends as were the birds and trees; so they all laughed together,
instead of quarrelling.
When Violet reached home her breakfast was ready, and she sat down on
the doorstep with her tin porringer of bread and milk. She was so hungry
that it tasted better than a great many nicer breakfasts which have been
eaten from silver cups; but, hungry as she was, she did not forget her
kitten, who came, saying, plainly as she could purr, "Leave a little for
me."
Violet had found out that it makes one quite as happy to be generous as
to eat a good breakfast, and kitty had her share. Then she washed her
porringer, hung it up in the sun to dry, and ran out in the garden,
where her mother was picking flowers, whole baskets full of them, for
the market, and told Violet to look among the thickly-clustering leaves
of her namesakes, and gather all the blossoms she could find.
She found a whole apron full, white and blue violets, single and double
ones; these she tied in bunches, with a few bright green leaves around
each bouquet. The whole garden was scented with their fragrance, and
Violet thought them the prettiest flowers in the world, as well as the
sweetest, and wished in her heart that she could, just once, have one of
these whole bunches for her own.
While she knelt on the ground admiring her lovely flowers, and wishing
they need not all be sent away and sold, the fairy Love flew to her
mother's side, and whispered in her ear all that Violet was thinking
about. Then her mother remembered that to-morrow would be Violet's
birthday, and on that occasion she never forgot to give her a present.
But about this I must tell in another chapter.