Good evening, children. It's Granny Madduff, ready with a story. So make yourselves comfy, and I'll begin.

Once upon a time, in winter, when the air was cold and the icy wind whipped.

A little flower lay inside a bulb under the snow-covered ground.

One day, rain fell and a drop of rain crashed through the snow like a comet, all the way to the flower in the bulb under the ground.

It talked of the beautiful world above.

Soon, a sunbeam made its way through the tunnel the raindrop had created.

The sunbeam went straight down to the flower in the bulb. made its way through the tunnel the raindrop had created.

The sunbeam went straight down to the flower in the bulb in the ground.

Come in, please, said the flower in the bulb.

I am afraid I cannot.

I am not yet strong enough, said the sunbeam.

When summer comes, I shall be strong enough.

The flower was very eager for summer to come.

And so each time a sunbeam came, she asked,

When will summer come?

And each time, the answer was,

Soon.

But soon was quite a ways away.

For there was still snow on the ground.

What a long time it takes! The flower would cry. I am ready to stretch out, to reach above the ground and smile at the world.

What a time summer will be!

And how I long for it to be now.

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