The changeable April days had just come to an end and the beaming May sun shone so warm and alluring that all the flowers looked up to it with wide-open petals. Mary Ann with Sami by the hand, her big basket on her arm, was coming along up from La Tour. The boy opened both his eyes as wide as he could, for the red and blue flowers in the green grass and the golden sunshine above them delighted him very much.
"Grandmother," he said taking a deep breath, "to-day we will sit on the low wall for twelve long hours, won't we, really?"
"Yes, indeed," assented his grandmother, "we will stay there long enough to get well rested and enjoy ourselves; but when the sun goes down and it grows dark, then we will go. Then all the little birds are silent in the trees and the old night-owl begins to hoot."
This seemed right to Sami, for he didn't want to hear the old owl hoot. Now they had reached the wall. A cool shadow was lying on it; below the fresh brook murmured, and up in the ash-trees the birds piped and sang merrily together and one kept singing very distinctly:
Sami listened. Suddenly he lifted up his voice and sang as loud and lustily as the birds above, the whole song that his grandmother had taught him:
Last night Summer breezes blew:-- All the flowers awake anew, Open wide their eyes to see, Nodding, bowing in their glee.
All the merry birds we hear Greet the sunshine bright and clear; See them flitting thru the sky, Singing low and singing high!
Flowers in Summer warmth delight:-- What of Winter and its blight? Snowy fields and forests cold? Flowers are by their faith consoled.
Songsters, all so blithe and gay, Know ye what your carols say? How will your sweet carols fare When your nests the snow-storms tear?
All the birdlings everywhere Now their loveliest songs prepare; All the birdlings gayly sing:-- "Trust the Lord in everything!"
Then Sami listened very attentively, as if he wanted to hear whether the birds really sang so.
"Listen, listen, grandmother!" he said after a while. "Up there in the tree is one that doesn't sing like the others. At first he keeps singing 'Trust! Trust! Trust! Trust!' and then the rest comes after."
"Yes, yes, that is the finch, Sami," she replied. "See, he wants to impress it upon you, so that you will think about what will always keep you safe and happy. Just listen, now, he is calling again: Trust! trust! trust! trust! trust! Only trust the dear Lord."