Produced by Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) A FLOWER BOOK EDEN COYBEE & NELLIE BENSON London: GRANT RICHARDS, 9 Henrietta Street, W.C. The Dumpy Books for Children No. 7. A FLOWER BOOK * * * * * THE DUMPY BOOKS FOR CHILDREN. _Cloth, Royal 32mo, 1/6 each._ 1. THE FLAMP, THE AMELIORATOR, AND THE SCHOOLBOY'S APPRENTICE. By E. V. LUCAS. (_Seventh Thousand._) 2. MRS. TURNER'S CAUTIONARY STORIES. (_Fifth Thousand._) 3. THE BAD FAMILY. By MRS. FENWICK. (_Third Thousand._) 4. THE STORY OF LITTLE BLACK SAMBO. Illustrated in Colours by HELEN BANNERMAN. (_Twenty-seventh Thousand._) 5. THE BOUNTIFUL LADY. By THOMAS COBB. (_Fourth Thousand._) 6. A CAT BOOK. Portraits by H. OFFICER SMITH. Characteristics by E. V. LUCAS. (_Eighth Thousand._) 7. A FLOWER BOOK. Illustrated in Colours by NELLIE BENSON. Story by EDEN COYBEE. * * * * * A Flower Book THE STORY BY EDEN COYBEE THE PICTURES BY NELLIE BENSON LONDON: GRANT RICHARDS 1901 London Engraved & Printed at the _Racquet Court Press_ by _Edmund Evans_ * * * * * _In the history of men's love for God or for God's creatures there comes one hour of divine uplifting when a symbol must stand for the unspoken word._ _That symbol is ever a flower._ _There is a path of flowers through all science_. _In order that each flower of my little story book should not masquerade in vain meaningless garments or sing to empty words, I have sought the help of many wiser than I in this knowledge born of sympathy with nature. So this little book is not entirely a fairy-tale._ _To those who would follow me along the same by-ways, I wish to say that I owe a great deal to the Reverend Hilderic Friend for his ever delightful look on "Flowers and Flower Lore."_ _E. C._ * * * * * [Illustration: CHRISTMAS ROSE] A FLOWER BOOK. When the snow lies thick on the ground and all the streams that babble in summer lie still in their houses of ice, you think, I daresay, that the flowers are asleep, and that nothing can wake them before the spring? But I know of a wood where the little elves and sprites and the delicate fairies dance in a ring in the moonlight, and I will tell you of what happens there at twelve o'clock on the first night of every year. The clock in the cathedral tower booms out twelve solemn strokes, and all the church bells peal a welcome to the New Year. That is the signal for the fairies to come down on a moonbeam--with their white dresses shining and their long yellow hair streaming.