It was many days before Clara could persuade herself that she had only dreamed. It was months before she told the dream to her mother. And when she told it, her mother said:
“Ah, Clara, would that all little girls might dream, if only it made them as good as your dream has made you.”
THE SNOWDROP
Hans Christian Andersen
A deep snow covered the ground for it was winter time. The air was cold and the sharp wind blew, but in one tiny house all was snug and warm. There under earth and snow in its bulb lay a little flower.
One day when the rain fell, little drops trickled through the snow coverlet down into the earth and told the flower bulb about the light above. And presently a sunbeam, pointed and slender, pierced its way through the ground and tapped on the little bulb.
“Come in,” said the flower.
“I cannot,” said the sunbeam. “I am not strong enough to lift the latch. I shall be stronger when spring comes.”