Chapter 1 A
StoryIN the garden all the apple-trees were in blossom. They
had hastened to bring forth flowers before they got green leaves,
and in the yard all the ducklings walked up and down, and the cat
too: it basked in the sun and licked the sunshine from its own
paws. And when one looked at the fields, how beautifully the corn
stood and how green it shone, without comparison! and there was a
twittering and a fluttering of all the little birds, as if the day
were a great festival; and so it was, for it was Sunday. All the
bells were ringing, and all the people went to church, looking
cheerful, and dressed in their best clothes. There was a look of
cheerfulness on everything. The day was so warm and beautiful that
one might well have said: "God's kindness to us men is beyond
