Page:Fairy tales and other stories (Andersen, Craigie).djvu/338

326 flowers stood in shining transparent vases; and in one of these, which looked as if it had been cut out of fresh-fallen snow, the Apple Branch was placed among some fresh light twigs of beech. It was charming to behold. But the Branch became proud; and this was quite like human nature.

People of various kinds came through the room, and according to their rank they might express their admiration. A few said nothing at all, and others again said too much, and the Apple Tree Branch soon got to understand that there was a difference in human beings just as among plants.

'Some are created for beauty, and some for use; and there are some which one can do without altogether,' thought the Apple Branch.

And as he stood just in front of the open window, from whence he could see into the garden and across the fields, he had flowers and plants enough to contemplate and to think about, for there were rich plants and humble plants— some very humble indeed.

'Poor despised herbs!' said the Apple Branch. 'There is certainly a difference! And how unhappy they must feel, if indeed that kind can feel like myself and my equals. Certainly there is a difference, and distinctions must be made, or we should all be equal.'

And the Apple Branch looked down with a species of pity, especially upon a certain kind of flower of which great numbers are found in the fields and in ditches. No one bound them into a nosegay, they were too common; for they might be found even among the paving-stones, shooting up everywhere like the rankest weeds, and they had the ugly name of 'dandelion', or 'the devil's milk-pail'.

'Poor despised plants!' said the Apple Branch. 'It is not your fault that you are what you are, that you are so common, and that you received the ugly name you bear. But it is with plants as with men—there must be a difference!'

'A difference?' said the Sunbeam; and he kissed the blooming Apple Branch, but also kissed the yellow dandelions out in the field—all the brothers of the Sunbeam kissed them, the poor flowers as well as the rich.