The Daisy

Yes, the poor lark had good reason to be sad.

You see, he had been caught, and now sat in a cage close by an open window of the house. He sadly sang of the free and happy roaming he used to do, of the young green corn in the fields, of the glorious journeys he used to make on his wings high up through the air. The poor bird was very unhappy, for there he was, a prisoner-in a cage!

How the little daisy wished she could help him! But what could she do? Yes, that was difficult to figure out. She quite forgot how beautiful the world was, how warm the sun shone, and how wonderfully white were her own petals. She could only try to think of the poor little bird and how powerless she was to help him.

Suddenly two little boys came out of the garden, and one of them was carrying a big sharp knife like that which the girl had used to cut the tulips. They went straight up to the little daisy, who could not understand what was going on.

"Here we can cut a fine piece of turf for the lark," said one of the boys. Then he began to cut out a square patch of grass around the daisy, so that the little flower remained standing in the middle of it.

"Tear off that flower!" said the other boy.

And the daisy trembled with fear! To be torn off would mean losing her life, and she wanted so much to live now, and go with the turf to the captive lark.

"No, leave it there," the other boy said. "It looks pretty." And then the daisy, in a little patch of sod, was put into the lark's cage.

But the poor bird was complaining about his lost liberty and beating his wings against the wires of his prison; and the little daisy couldn't speak, couldn't console him however much she wanted to. And thus the morning passed.

"There is no water here!" cried the captive lark. "They've all gone away and have forgotten to give me anything to drink. My throat's dry and burning. I feel as if I had fire and ice within me, and the air is so close! Oh, I must die! I must leave the warm sunshine, and the fresh green, and all the splendor that God has created!