Chapter 5 Little Ida's Flowers

Little Ida's Flowers "My poor flowers are all dead!" said little Ida. "They were so beautiful last night, and now their leaves are drooping and withered. Why are they doing this?" she asked a student sitting on a sofa.Because she likes him very much.He could tell some very beautiful stories, and he would cut out some very interesting designs: little girls dancing in a heart chamber, flowers, and a large palace with doors that opened automatically.He is a happy student. "Why do the flowers look so dull today?" she asked again, pointing out to him a bunch of flowers that had withered.

"Do you know what they have done!" asked the student. "These flowers went to a ball last night, so they hung their heads down today." "But flowers can't dance," said little Ida. "Well, they can dance," said the student, "and they dance around merrily when we go to bed after dark. They have a dance almost every night." "Can children go to this ball?" "Of course," said the student, "little daisies and lily-of-the-valleys will do." "Where do these most beautiful flowers dance?" asked little Ida.

"Have you ever been in that great palace outside the city gate? The king moves there in the summer, and it has the most beautiful gardens, with flowers of every color. Did you see the swans? They swim up to you when you throw them crumbs. That's where the beautiful ball is held, take my word for it." "I went to that garden with my mother yesterday," said little Ida, "but all the leaves were gone from the trees there, and there wasn't a single flower! Where did they go? I Seen so many flowers in summer." "They've all moved into the palace," said the student. "You know, as soon as the king and his servants have moved into the city, these flowers run from the garden into the palace, and play there happily. You should see them like that That's good. The two most beautiful roses sit on the throne by themselves, and become the king and queen of flowers. All the red cockscombs are standing on both sides, bending over to salute. They are the attendants of the king of flowers. All kinds of beautiful All the flowers came, and there began a great ball. The blue violets were the little naval students, and they called the hyacinths and the crocuses, and they danced with them. The tulips and the tall The lilacs are the old ladies. They watch over and make sure the ball goes well and everyone behaves."

"But," asked little Ida, "these flowers dance in the King's palace, and is there no one to interfere with them?" "Because no one really knows about it," said the student. "Of course, sometimes the old warden of the palace goes there at night because he has to keep watch there. He has a lot of keys with him. But when As soon as the flowers heard the key, they fell silent, and hid behind the long curtains, and only poked their heads out furtively. The old caretaker only said, 'I smell flowers here'; but he But can't see them." "That is very funny!" said little Ida, clapping her hands; "but may I have a look at these flowers?"

"Yes," said the student, "when you go again, just remember to peek in the window furtively and you'll see them. That's what I did today. There was a long daffodil lazily Lying on the sofa, she thought she was a court lady!" "Can the flowers of the botanical garden go there? Can they travel that far?" "Yes, you can rest assured about that," the student said. "They can fly if they want to. Have you ever seen those red, yellow, and white butterflies? They look almost like flowers, and they are flowers. They used to jump high from the branches to the air, flapping their petals as if they were little wings. And so they fly. Because they are polite, they are allowed to fly during the day, and they don't have to go home , stuck to the branches. Thus their petals become real wings at last. You have seen these things with your own eyes. It is probable that the flowers of the botanical gardens have never been to the king's palace, and are very Probably they have no idea what fun it is at night there. Well, I can teach you something now that will amaze the professor of botany who lives around here. You know him, don't you? Next time you go When you go to his garden, please take a letter to a flower, saying that someone is having a big ball in the palace. Then this flower will tell all the other flowers, and they will all fly Go away. When the professor comes into the garden, he won't see a single flower. He will never guess where the flowers have gone."

"However, how can flowers send messages to each other? Flowers can't talk." "Of course, they can't talk," replied the student, "but they can make faces. You must have noticed that when the wind blows slightly, the flowers nod their heads and put all their The green leaves are all shaking. They understand all these gestures, just like speech." "Can the professor understand their expressions?" asked little Ida. "Of course I do. He went into his garden one morning and saw a great stinging nettle gesturing with its leaves to a beautiful red carnation. It was saying, 'You are so Beautiful, how I love you!' But the old professor could not bear such things, so he slapped the nettle leaves at once, for the leaves were its fingers. But it hurt him himself, so from then on he never dared to touch a nettle."

"That's very funny," said little Ida, laughing out loud. "Such a whimsical idea to put into a child's head!" said a repulsive Privy Councilor.He happened to be visiting at this time, sitting on a sofa.He doesn't like this student very much, and when he sees the student cutting out some funny patterns, he will complain.Sometimes these designs show a man hanging on the gallows, holding a heart in his hand, indicating that he has stolen many hearts; sometimes they show an old witch with her husband on the bridge of her nose, riding a A broom flies.The Privy Councilor couldn't understand such things, so he often liked to say what he said just now: "It's all unreasonable fantasies to put such whimsical ideas into a child's mind!"

But little Ida was very interested in what the student told about the flowers, and she thought long and hard on the subject.The flowers hung their heads because they were tired from dancing all night, and no doubt they were sick.So she took them to some of her other toys.These toys were placed on a pretty little table, and the drawers were full of her favorite things.Her doll, Sophia, was sleeping in the doll's bed, but little Ida said to her, "Sophia, you ought to get up. You should try to sleep in a drawer to-night. Poor flower." The children are all sick, and they should sleep in your bed. Then they may get better." So she removed the doll.But Sophia looked very unhappy and said nothing.She was angry at not being able to sleep in her own bed.

Little Ida put the flowers on the doll's bed, and covered them up with the quilt.She also told them that they must sleep peacefully now, and that she herself must make them a pot of tea, so that their bodies could recover and they could get up tomorrow.At the same time she drew the curtains so that the bed was well shut over their beds, so that the sun would not shine into their eyes. All night she kept thinking about what the student had told her.When she herself went to bed, she had to look behind the drawn curtains.Along the windows were displayed some of her mother's beautiful flowers--hyacinths and crocuses.She whispered to them, "I know you are going to a ball tonight." But the flowers pretended not to understand a word, and did not move a leaf.But little Ida knew it herself.

After she got into bed, she lay quietly for a long time.She thought how interesting it would be to see these lovely flowers dancing in the king's palace! "I wonder if my flowers have really been there?" And she fell asleep.In the night she woke up again; she dreamed of the flowers and the student--the Privy Councilor used to chide him for filling her head with idle whims.The room where little Ida slept was very quiet, the lamp was still on on the table, and father and mother had fallen asleep. "I wonder if my flowers are still sleeping in Sophia's bed?" she said to herself. "How I wish to know!" She lifted her head a little, and glanced at the half-open door.Her flowers and all her toys are outside the door.She listened quietly, and then she seemed to hear someone playing the piano in the room outside. It was played beautifully and softly. She had never heard such a piano sound.

"The flowers must be dancing there now!" said she; "oh, God, how I should like to see them!" But she dared not get up, for fear of waking her father and mother. "I just wish they were here!" she said.But the flowers did not come in, and the music continued to play, which was very pleasant.She couldn't help it anymore, because it was all so beautiful.She climbed out of the crib, walked quietly to the door, and peeked into the outer room.Ah, what an interesting sight she beheld! There was no light in that room, but it was bright nonetheless, for the moonlight streaming in through the window was falling in the middle of the floor.The room was almost as bright as day, and all the hyacinths and crocuses stood in two rows on the floor.There was not a single flower on the window sill now, only empty pots.All kinds of flowers danced on the floor, they are so beautiful.They formed a neat, long dancing chain; they linked long green leaves and wriggled their haunches; beside the piano sat a tall yellow lily.Little Ida had seen him once in the summer, for she remembered well that the pupil had said, "How like Miss Lini this flower is!" and everyone laughed at him then.But now little Ida really felt that the tall yellow flower resembled the lady.She played the piano just the way she did--turning her oval yellow face one way and the other, all the while nodding and beating time to the beautiful music! Not a single flower noticed little Ida.She saw a large blue early spring flower jump to the center of the table.The toys are on there.It went right up to the doll's bed, and drew the curtains aside.The sick flowers were lying on the bed, but they got up at once, and nodded to some of the other flowers, to show that they too wanted to dance.The old chimney-sweep doll stood up, with a notch in its lower lip, and bowed to the beautiful flowers, which did not look sick at all.They jumped out of bed and mingled with the other flowers, very happy. Then something seemed to fall from the table.Little Ida looked there, and it turned out to be a birch stick that had been given to her for the carnival.It jumped off the table!It also thought it was one of these flowers.It looks cute too.A little wax figure rides on it.On the head of the wax figure was a broad hat, not unlike the one worn by Privy Councilors.The birch stick jumped straight into the flowers with its three red legs, and stomped heavily on the floor, for it was dancing the Polish mazurka.But the other flowers couldn't do this dance, because they were too light to stomp like that. The wax figure riding on the birch stick suddenly grew taller and bigger.He rushed towards the paper flowers like a whirlwind, and said: "Such whimsical ideas should be poured into a child's head! They are all unreasonable fantasies!" The wax figure and the man in the wide hat The Privy Councilor was exactly the same, and his face was as yellow and angry as the Councilor.But those paper flowers hit him on his thin leg, so he shrank into a ball and became a tiny wax figure again.It was amusing to see his air!Little Ida could not help laughing.Birchstick continued his dance, so that the Privy Councilor was compelled to do the same.Now it doesn't matter whether he's grown thick, lanky, or remains a yellow wax man in a big black hat;Now some other flowers, especially those who had slept for a while on the doll's bed, said something flattering to him, and the birch stick stopped to let him rest. Suddenly there was a loud knocking in the drawer—little Ida's doll Sophia was sleeping in it, along with many other toys.The chimney sweep hurried to the table, stretched himself on the floor, and arched his back to push the drawer out a little.Then Sophia sat up and looked around in amazement. "There must be a dance here," she said. "Why didn't anyone tell me?" "Will you dance with me?" said the chimney sweep. "You're a very pretty partner!" she answered, turning her back on him. So she sat down on the drawer.She thought that there must be a flower coming to ask her to dance.But no flowers came.So she coughed a few times on purpose: "Cough! Cough! Cough!" But still no flowers came to invite her.The chimney-sweep was dancing alone now, and not badly. Seeing that there were no flowers to care for her, Sophia deliberately fell from the drawer and fell to the floor, making a loud noise.All the flowers came running around her and asked her if she had hurt herself.The flowers—especially the ones that had slept in her bed—were very kind to her.But she wasn't hurt at all.Little Ida's flowers all thanked her for having slept in that very comfortable bed.They held her high and invited her to come and dance with her in the middle of the floor where the moon was shining.All the rest of the flowers formed a circle around her.Sophia is happy now!She said they could use her bed as they please, and she would be fine sleeping in a drawer. But the flowers said, "We thank you from the bottom of our hearts, but we won't live long. Tomorrow we will die. But please tell little Ida to bury us in the garden--the canary is lying there too." There. Next summer we'll be alive again, and even more beautiful." "No, you must not die!" Sophia said.She kissed the flowers. At this moment, the door of the living room opened suddenly.A large group of beautiful flowers came dancing and dancing.Little Ida could not think where they came from.They must be those flowers in the king's palace.The first to enter were two bright roses.They are all wearing a gold crown - so they are the king and queen of flowers.This was followed by a beautiful group of violets and carnations.They pay tribute to all aspects.They also brought a band.The big poppies and peonies blew the pods so hard that they turned red.The blue hyacinths and the little white snowflakes jingled as if they had bells on them.The music is so funny!After a while, many other flowers came, and they were dancing together.There came blue violas, pink primroses, daisies, lilies of the valley.The flowers kiss each other.They look absolutely gorgeous! At last the flowers said goodnight to each other.Then little Ida went to bed too.All these scenes that she had seen appeared again in her dream. When she got up next day, she hurried to the little table to see if the flowers were still there.She drew the curtains that covered the cot sideways.Yes, the flowers are all there, but they look more haggard than yesterday.Sophia was still lying in the drawer—little Ida had put her to bed.She looked as if she hadn't woken up yet. "Do you remember what you were going to tell me?" asked little Ida.But Sophia looked silly.She didn't say a word. "You are very bad!" said little Ida. "But they danced with you anyway." So she took out a small cardboard box with some beautiful birds painted on it.She opened the box and put all the dead flowers in it. "Here is your beautiful coffin!" she said, "and when my two cousins ​​who live in Norway come to see me, they will help me to bury you in the garden, so that you will be buried again next summer." Grow and become more beautiful flowers." The Norwegian cousins ​​are two lively children.One is Jonas.One is Yadolf.Their father gave them two bows, and they brought these with them to show little Ida.She told them all the stories of the poor dead flowers.They came to hold funerals for these flowers.The two children went first, bows slung upon their shoulders; and little Ida followed, carrying the beautiful box of dead flowers.They dug a small grave in the garden.Little Ida kissed the flowers first, and then buried them with the box in the earth.Jonas and Yadolf shot arrows at the grave in salute, for they had neither gun nor cannon. ① Carnival Birch Stick (Fastelasns-Riset) is a painted birch stick; Danish children use it as a horse to ride. ② Mazurka is a light and lively Polish dance.