So up this Humming-bird flew, right on to the top of Chimborazo, the great high mountain, where there was snow everywhere. "Have you come to thaw me?" said the snow, as it fell around him. "That is ridiculous. We shall see which of us is best able to extinguish the other." With that one snowflake fell upon his head and two more upon his tail, just over those three patches that had been so marvellously bright. He tried to shake them off, but he could not. They stayed there, and instead of having been able to thaw them, it was _they_ who had put _his_ brightness quite out. All those wonderful colours were gone now, and there was only the snow-white. "Fly back," said the snow, "or I will quite cover you. You have lost that of which you were so proud, but you have me in exchange. Fly back, and be a wiser bird for the future." So the Humming-bird flew back, ashamed and crestfallen, and fearing to show himself. "What will the others say when they see me?" he thought. But when the other Humming-birds saw him, they all cried out, "Oh, look! What beautiful bird is this that has come to dwell amongst us? What an exquisite white! Surely he has been to the top of Chimborazo and brought down some of its snow upon him. How pure and how lovely!" Yes, they could look at him now, and they thought him more beautiful than when they were blinded and dazzled. That is how that Humming-bird got his snow-white patches. He had no colours now with which to outrival the other Humming-birds, but he could put up with that, for the white snow was lovelier than them all. And then there is the Humming-bird that the Indians call the Jewel-flower-sunrise-and-sunset-Humming-bird (only they have one word for it, which makes it sound better). I have forgotten what his English name is--I am not quite sure if he has one. This Humming-bird was very beautiful to begin with, so beautiful, indeed, that the flowers, as he hovered over them, fell in love with him and wished to give him their colours to wear, for their sakes. But the Humming-bird did not want their colours, for he thought his own were much more beautiful. "If you sparkled like jewels," he said, "as well as being soft and bright, then it would be different. But your beauty is too homely. You are not sufficiently refulgent." (That was a word he was fond of, for he had heard it applied to himself. Your mother will tell you what it means).