LOVE'S CHARM.
But the next day, (and this is a true story,) when it had grown so warm
that Violet could not work any longer in the garden, and was going home
with her hoe and watering pot, there stood the three toads again in the
walk, just as they were the day before, with Toady, as she called him,
between the two smaller ones. All three gave a little hop when Violet
came in sight, and then stood still again.
This was their way of saying, "Good morning; we hope you haven't
forgotten us."
And long afterwards, whenever Violet passed through the garden walk,
especially if the day was warm, she was pretty sure of meeting her new
acquaintances.
They even grew so tame that they would follow her about the garden; and
often she would walk up and down the same path for half an hour at a
time, just for the sake of seeing how soberly her droll little pets
would hop along after her, turning whenever she turned, and waiting for
her whenever she stopped.
Violet thought them the wisest and most loving toads that ever hopped.
She did not know that Love, directly their mistress entered the garden,
fastened them to her by a delicate silken cord, just the color of Love's
own purple wings, and they could not very well help following her;
though, if Violet had treated them unkindly, in an instant the purple
cord would have lost all its strength, and grown slender as the
slenderest thread in a spider web.
Now, my dear readers, though I hope with all my heart that you will try
to be as good and loving as Violet, I don't want you to _do_ every thing
she did. All toads are not as fond of a sprinkling as Toady and his
young brothers were; so you mustn't drown the poor things in water every
time you meet one.
What you need is, to persuade the fairies Love and Contentment to live
in your home, and trust to your keeping a charm like the one they had
placed in Violet's heart.
Then, every morning of your lives, they will tell something which you
can do, and no one else can do as well, to make others happy--kind deeds
that will lighten misfortune, and loving words that may enter like
music, and dwell in some lonely, sorrowing heart.
Believe always this one thing--that every kind deed you do for others
will make _you_ happier then and always, and every unkind deed will make
you feel ashamed and sorry so long as you remember it. No matter to whom
the kindness or unkindness may be done--a king or a butterfly, your own
dear mother or a little toad in the garden walk. I have known children
who could not bear to see even a lily broken down by rain, its beautiful
white flowers all lying in the dirt. I have watched them prop it up with
sticks, and gently wash the earth away from its delicate petals, and
have said to myself, "Ah, little one, the fairy Love is nestling in your
heart."
And I have seen the fairy Contentment start from her nest among the
lilies, and follow the little one as she ran off to play.