Dewdrop

“ I argued, believing we were about to hold an ordinary séance.
"Because he's a live one, he hasn't passed over yet," replied Dewdrop, "and live ones always make my medium feel sick. But it's no use. I can't keep him out. He may as well come. But don't let him stay long."
"Who is he, Dewdrop?" I demanded curiously.
"I don't know! Guess you will! He's an old friend of yours, and his name is George." Whereupon Bessie Fitzgerald laid back on the sofa cushions, and Dewdrop ceased to speak. ”

“ He just took breath, after the exhaustion and excitement, alike of both body and mind, which his aerial adventure had entailed; and then hastened straight to the home of the Nightingale and Thrush, to tell of the glorious ascent (what the old and learned creatures of the earth would have called [Pg 58] the apotheosis) of the Dewdrop on the rose-leaf; its severance into a million fragments; and how these, in the shape of a great army, had marched right within
The Sun's Golden Gates! ”

“ Where had been the Nightingale's eyes? It was something at all events very like a bright, unmistakable, beautiful diamond on which the Thrush looked. How it glistened and sparkled; and that too with all the prismatic colours! The spectator could only (what was an effort to any member of the Thrush family) gaze in mute wonder.
"What in all the world can you be, [Pg 31] you lovely, silent sleeper on the rose-leaf, with your round crystal cheeks? Dewdrop we thought you were; teardrop you say you are: I cannot think you are either. ”

“ Why, the Nightingale, on his way from the rose-leaf, had, perhaps somewhat inconsiderately, tapped at his door, to inform him that all he could get out of the Dewdrop was (a very incomprehensible sentiment to a sleepy bird) , that he was a tear wept by the Sky when it lost the Sun; and he was bound in all sincerity to add, [Pg 28] that it seemed rather a dull and uninteresting tear to boot.
"I know better," growled the Thrush. (I have used the word "growl," because I can find no better to describe the reality.) ”

“ So common a thing as a dewdrop caught in a cobweb became more beautiful than jewel-spangled lace. The rustling of the quail in the brush, even the glimpse of a coiled snake basking on a sunny spot of earth, was fraught with interest because it spoke of life, glad and fearless and free. ”

“ Away, away, little bird," stammered out the Dewdrop, with some nervous twitchings presently to be accounted for; "I must prepare to meet this Queen Aurora. But," it added in a kind of after [Pg 33] thought, "the procession will soon be over; come back shortly and see me, if you please." The keen diamond eye twinkled with a humorous, comical expression when these last words were uttered; as much as to say, "I shall manage to cheat you, old fellow, wont I?"
The Thrush had some small quantum of poetry in his nature ”

“ I know what you are. You are a rare diamond just taken from the crown of the Queen of the Morning. But, I confess, you look, too, very like the Dewdrop I spied at a distance, a few hours ago, on the tip of a rose-leaf."
"What a capital guesser you are, tiny minstrel," was the reply; "but you had better leave me with my diamond [Pg 49] name, at all events for the present. I shall not say whether some scientific bird-winged philosophers are right or wrong when they aver that, though the Queen of the Morning borrowed me, I am really and truly a jewel from the crown of the Sun ”

“ Frequently one large dewdrop, clear as a diamond, is deposited upon the very tip of the little grass blade, sometimes two and even three large drops are held in suspension thus, while upon the extreme sharp edge of one or both sides of the blade a collection of small, bead-like drops cling in orderly, precise fashion, strung from tip to root of the grass blade. ”

“ AFTERWORDS. An Angel's Whisper.
he Soul—the Spirit of Man—apart from the Great Sun, becomes a teardrop. All is dark to it, when that All-glorious Source of Light and Love is away. Earth's sweetest songs cannot cheer it. But when the morning comes, and the Sun returns, the teardrop becomes a Dewdrop—gleaming like a diamond in [Pg 60] that peerless radiance. And at death, when it seems to be dissolved, and has apparently vanished from sight, it is exhaled—not annihilated. It passes upward to the Golden Gates, to be lost in the splendour of the Everlasting Light! ”

“ "YOU are the big drop of dew under the lotus leaf, I am the smaller one on its upper side," said the dewdrop to the lake. ”

“ The Dewdrop Slips Into The Shining Sea! ”

“ Every dewdrop and raindrop had a whole heaven within it; ”

“ The Jimmy-fly flies up to the ‘giant’s’ ear, and tries to buzz ‘Cruel, cruel, cruel!’
“A great hand strikes him off. He gets lost in the air; and when, after a long time, he finds his way back, the golden-spotted butterfly is almost dead. It takes no notice of any thing around, but murmurs, faintly and more faintly, of ‘clover, bees, honey, perfume, roses, mossy banks, lily-bells, dewdrops, humming-birds,’ and so passes away in a pleasant butterfly vision. ”

“ Wheresoever he goes he is beloved. With their soft, solemn music the pine-trees seek to detain him; the flowers of earth lift up their voices and cry, "Abide with us, dear spirit,"—but to all he answers: "The spring-time calls me in the North, and I must hasten whither she calls." But when the south wind came to the rose-tree he would go no farther; he loved the rose, and he lingered about her with singing and sighing and protestations.
It was not until late in the evening that Dewlove and the elf-prince appeared. ”

“ Unhappy lady Dewbell! She had so many hundred times been told, what she herself believed full well, that she was absolutely the most beautiful creature in existence, that the tale had lost its interest. The champagne of flattery, its creaming foam long ago melted into the brain, stood untasted before her, dull and flat as the subsided fountain poured by the last rain-shower into the tulip's cup. And so the fairy princess stood listless and apart from the joyous revel, her little form swaying lightly to and fro, with the undulations of the lily-stem against which she more perceptibly rested. ”

“ Her plaited hair which had hidden her profile moved and Davood saw the black beauty-spot near her lips. He felt pain in his body, he was perspiring on the forehead. He looked around. There wasn’t a soul there. But he could hear the singing man more clearly. His heart was throbbing so quickly that he couldn’t breathe. Without a word, he got up. All his body was trembling. He was about to weep. He picked up his walking stick and with heavy steps and drawing his body, he set off back. ”

“ Roy laughed happily. He was going down the mountain on the ox team which was piled high with barrels of rich brown syrup.
"I'd like to stay!" he said. "I've learned about what you said before I came: that it's more real fun doing hard things than 'tis to play at easy ones!"
—Written for Dew Drops by Ruby Holmes Martyn.
NEIGHBORS.
Bobby made the snow man. He had made snow men in the country, and he knew how. He always made them by the gate, next to the big syringa bush. He used to cut a stick from a tree for the snow man to hold, and he generally placed a long chicken feather in its cap. ”

“ The sixth drop gathered, and fell; already the seventh was like a seedling pearl in its place. The dying wolf yanked affectionately at my hand, but I put her by and undid my tunic. Big and bright that drop hung to the spout lip; another minute and it would fall. A beautiful drop, I laughed, peering closely at it, many-coloured, prismatic, flushing red and pink, a tiny living ruby, hanging by a touch to the green rim above; enough! enough! ”

“ White and cold about the lips, she rose up suddenly, went to the window, and looked out. She could see the broken lattice lying at the foot of the wall, and even imagined that the stains of Dan’s blood were visible upon the grass. How she hated and feared the man! The thought of his coarse face and great, heavy hands strengthened her in her passion to escape from the forest.
Turning back into the room, she put one of Jeffray’s pistols into her bosom and hid the other under the mattress of the bed. Then she buckled on her best shoes, hooked up her cloak, and drew the hood forward over her face. ”

“ Not long after the seven Dwarfs came home, and were horror-struck when they saw their dear little Snowdrop lying on the floor without stirring, like one dead. When they saw she was laced too tight they cut the lace, whereupon she began to breathe and soon came back to life again. When the Dwarfs heard what had happened, they said that the old Pedlar was no other than the wicked Queen. ‘Take care not to let any one in when we are not here,’ they said. ”

“ Drop out, to disappear from one's place; Drop serene, an old medical name for amaurosis, literally translated from L. gutta serena.—A dropping fire, a continuous irregular discharge of small-arms.—Prince Rupert's drops, drops of glass which have fallen in a melted state into cold water, and have assumed a tadpole-like shape, the whole falling to dust with a loud report if the point of the tail be nipped off. ”

“ Don't cry any more," said the lady as she put it down and handed it to Marjorie, kissing her little tear-stained face.
Marjorie clung to it with both hands and started for home. She wanted to put the umbrella back by the hall tree, and tell mother all about the runaway.—Written for Dew Drops by Flora Louise Whitmore.
THE ADOPTED BROOD.
"Oh, look, Bobby!" said Betty, as she jumped out of the swing, and went running down toward the hayfield. "Here comes Joe, and he has something to show us. I know it's a surprise." ”

“ Hallo! away down there in the dark, grim wood. Who is talking at this time of night? Hallo!
She went to sleep, so did Robert Jeffries, and the window was open.
The moon rose into the zenith and looked down from her pale face upon three different objects: a forest, a river, and a cabin.
In the forest a silent form lay cold, still and bloody, near a thick tree; a man stood over him, looking quietly down upon him.
The watcher spoke in a strange, far-away voice. ”

“ Horrid creature! to take all my nonsense for real earnest, and to go away and leave me to be persecuted to death!" exclaimed the lady Dewbell, with an uncontrollable burst of tears, as she threw herself, her toilet half finished, and her hair all strewn over her face and shoulders, upon her little praying cushion. "What will become of poor Bell!"
"What ails my daughter?" said the sweet, soft voice of the queen mother, as she knelt tenderly over her child, and pressed her head to her bosom. "Tell your sorrows to your mother."
"Oh, mother, I am the most wretched fairy that ever existed. ”

“ Every morning the dwarfs went out into the mountains to dig for gold, and in the evening when they came back Snowdrop had their supper ready. But during the day she was left all alone and the good dwarfs warned her, saying, “Beware of your stepmother. She will soon find out [139] that you are here. Whatever you do, don’t let any one into the house.”
Now the Queen, believing that she had eaten Snowdrop’s heart, had no doubt that she was again the most beautiful woman in the world; so stepping before her mirror one day she said,
“Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Who is fairest of us all?” ”

“ But she said that the orchid-house was so hot it gave her the headache. She had seen the plant once again, and the aërial rootlets, which were now some of them more than a foot long, had unfortunately reminded her of tentacles reaching out after something; and they got into her dreams, growing after her with incredible rapidity. So that she had settled to her entire satisfaction that she would not see that plant again, and Wedderburn had to admire its leaves alone. They were of the ordinary broad form, and a deep glossy green, with splashes and dots of deep red towards the base. ”

“ As the ugly, thick-limbed little Dwarf said this, he stamped one foot,—a loud wind was heard, and in a moment he went straight down through the earth, and was quite gone! At the same moment we heard a sweet voice singing in the air, which said:—
‘He thinks he makes what mortals see;
It seems so—but it shall not be.’
Before we had time to recover ourselves, we saw that the whole scene of frost and snow was changing into a bright summer. ”

“ Next day (it was a Friday—he had arrived at Wilsthorpe on a Monday) Lady Wardrop came over in her car soon after luncheon. She was a stout elderly person, very full of talk of all sorts and particularly inclined to make herself agreeable to Humphreys, who had gratified her very much by his ready granting of her request. They made a thorough exploration of the place together; and Lady Wardrop's opinion of her host obviously rose sky-high when she found that he really knew something of gardening. ”

“ Snowdrop wandered about until she came to the house of seven little dwarfs, and they were so kind as to take her in and let her live with them. She used to make their seven little beds, and prepare the meals for the seven little men, and they were all quite happy until the Queen found out from her mirror that Snowdrop was alive still, for, as it always told the truth, it still told her Snowdrop was the fairest lady in the land. ”

“ You've made me just hideous!'
"'I can't understand it,' he murmured. 'The middle vat used to be the black one, I know. They must have changed them. The blue one was always the one on the left.'
"'You're a stupid old duffer!' I said. And I left the dye shed in great anger and never went back to it again.
"Well, if I had been conspicuous before, now I was a hundred times more so. Against the black earth, or the green grass, or the white snow, or brown floors my loud, sky-blue coat could be seen as plain as a pikestaff. The minute I got outside the shed a cat jumped for me. ”