Page:Little Ellie and Other Tales (1850).djvu/24

Rh was the most lovely little creature in the world, as delicate and beautiful as a young rose-leaf.

All that long summer poor Ellie lived quite alone, in the large forest. She wove herself a bed of fine grasses, which she then hung up under a burdock-leaf, that it might not be washed away by the rain. For food she gathered the honey from the flower-cups; and she drank the fresh dew that every morning stood in glittering drops upon the leaves.

Thus passed the summer and autumn; but now came the cold long winter. All the birds that had sung so prettily to Ellie forsook her now; the trees lost their foliage, the flowers faded, and the large burdock-leaf, which hitherto had served her for shelter, shrunk together, till nothing but a dry yellow stalk was left, and she was so cold, for her clothes were in rags; and she herself was so delicate and small! Poor Ellie shivered; she was almost frozen to death!

It began, too, to snow, and every flake