"'Adonis! Adonis!' cried Venus.
"There was nothing but drops of blood on the grass to tell her where he
had been. It was all that was left of the handsome hunter.
"Venus sprinkled some of the nectar on these drops and, in an hour, tiny
flower buds showed their heads. Then she drove sadly home. Soft winds
blew the tiny buds open, and at night blew them away. So people called
them wind-flowers, or anemones. And they believe that the pink and
purple which colored them came from the heart of Adonis."
"But why didn't tiger-lilies or some other big and showy flowers come,
not these pretty little things?"
"I don't know, John; go and ask Venus."
THE MISTLETOE
_Norse_
Baldur, the youngest brother of Thor, was called The Beautiful. His
thoughts were so kind and his ways so pleasant that all who lived in
Asgard, the home of the Norse gods, loved him.
Baldur's days were the happiest of all in Asgard, but when he slept his
dreams were so strange that his nights were often unhappy.
He feared danger. So Frigga, his mother, who was the wife of Woden, went
to the sea and made it promise that no water should drown Baldur.
She went to the stones and made them promise not to harm her son.
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