It was winter time, and the Daffodil Baby lay wrapped in her warm brown
blankets under the ground. But she was not a contented Baby; she
wanted to be up above the ground to see what the great world was like.
"It is very dull down here," she said to her little friend, the
Earth-worm. "Do please go up and see if it is time for me to rise."
The Earth-worm wriggled his way to the top of the ground, but he soon
came back, shivering with cold. "Don't think of going up yet," he
said; "lie down and sleep again in your warm blankets. On the earth
there is nothing to be seen but snow and ice. You would be frozen if
you went up now."
So the Daffodil Baby lay down and went to sleep, and slept for many
days and nights. By and by, however, she woke and grew restless again.
"Please see if I may go up yet," she said. The kind Earth-worm went up
again, but came back as quickly as before. "Stay where you are," he
cried. "It has rained so much that all the garden is flooded. You
would be drowned if you went up now."
The Daffodil Baby had to lie down again. She tried to sleep, but she
only grew more restless day by day. At last she begged the little
Earth-worm to go up once more and see what the world was like. This
time he came back smiling. "You may safely go up now," he said. "The
snow and floods are all away, and the sunbeams are there. They are
looking for you."
The Daffodil Baby jumped for joy. She sprang out of her blankets and
began to push her way up as fast as she could, wrapping herself as she
went in a warm, thick cloak of green. When she reached the top she
felt the little sunbeams lay their warm hands on her, and she heard her
tall leaf-brothers say to one another: "Here comes Baby." But she did
not look out from her cloak, for she said to herself: "I must make my
frock and grow bigger before I shall be ready to play with the
sunbeams."
She worked away busily under her green cloak, and grew taller and
taller every day. The little Earth-worm often came out to look at her,
but all he could see was the green cloak. "Why don't you come out and
see the world?" he would shout from his lowly place on the ground. She
always answered: "Wait a little longer. I am making my frock."
At last, one beautiful spring morning, the frock was finished. "I am
coming out now," cried the Daffodil Baby. The Earth-worm wriggled up
to the top, and the sunbeams flew down to help. They tugged at the
thick green cloak with their warm hands till it flew open. Out sprang
the Daffodil Baby--a Daffodil Baby no longer, but grown into the
loveliest little Daffodil Lady. Her frock was all yellow and frilled,
and she wore the daintiest little green shoes. She was very beautiful.
The Earth-worm heard everybody say that.
"What a glorious world!" cried the little yellow lady. "Now I am going
to be very happy." And so she was. She played with the sunbeams,
danced with the winds, and talked merrily to her green-leaf brothers.
The bees and the moths came to see her every day; one warm day the
first butterfly of the season came to visit her.
But with all her good times she did not grow proud. She was just as
friendly with the Earth-worm, now when she stood so far above him, as
she had been when under the ground. She often had long talks with him
in the early mornings before the bees were awake. "Why don't you climb
up here?" she asked him one day. "It is much nicer swaying in the
wind, and I could talk to you so much more easily."
"I should grow giddy up there," answered the Earth-worm. "It is not
the place for me at all. Besides, I shall be able to talk to you all
through the long winter, when you are in your blankets again."
