beauty that surrounded their own dwellings would have induced them longer to abide in the vicinity of such a scene.
The little Maria and her companion, after playing about for some time in the meadow, where they had been plucking daisies, suddenly flung away what they had been so carefully collecting, and began a race in which the former soon lost sight of her competitor. “He has certainly entered the wood,” exclaimed she to herself, “surely I too may venture in.” At the same moment she perceived a little dog, which by wagging its tail in a friendly manner appeared to invite her to the spot.
Taking courage, therefore, she scrambled over the low mound which seemed to inclose the wood; but how great was her astonishment when, having entered the latter, instead of finding a dismal forest, choaked with tangled thorns and underwood, she perceived herself to be in a delightful garden, where flowers of every hue, and of the most odoriferous fragrance, grew in the utmost luxuriance. Butterflies
