Page:Fairy tales and stories (Andersen, Tegner).djvu/146

114 violets represent little midshipmen, and dance with hyacinths and crocuses whom they call young ladies. The tulips and the large tiger-lilies are the old ladies; they see that the dancing is done well and that everything is properly conducted!"

"But," asked little Ida, "doesn't any one do anything to the flowers for dancing in the king's palace?"

"There is no one who really knows anything about that," said the student. "Sometimes the old keeper who looks after the palace out there, comes round at night, but he has a large bunch of keys, and as soon as the flowers hear the keys rattle, they are quite quiet and hide themselves behind the long curtains and peep out.

"'I can smell that there are some flowers in here!' says the old keeper, but he cannot see them."

"That's great fun," said little Ida, clapping her hands. "But shouldn't I be able to see the flowers either?"

"Yes," said the student, "just remember when you go there again to peep in through the window, and you are sure to see them. I did so to-day, and there lay a long yellow daffodil on the sofa, stretching herself and imagining herself to be one of the ladies of the court!"

"Can the flowers in the Botanical Gardens also go there? Can they go such a long way?"

"Yes, of course!" said the student, "for they can fly if they like. Haven't you seen the beautiful butterflies, red, yellow, and white; they almost look like flowers, and that is what they once were. They have flown from the stalks right up into the air, flapping with their leaves as if they were little wings. And as they behaved well, they were allowed to fly about in the daytime also, and were not obliged to remain at home and sit still on the stalk, and so the leaves became real wings at last. You have seen that yourself! It may be, however, that the flowers in the Botanical Gardens have never been to the king's palace, and do not know that they have such a merry time at night out there. I will therefore tell you something which will greatly surprise the botanical professor, who lives next door—you know him, don't you? When you go into his garden, you must tell one of the flowers that there is going to be a great ball at the palace, and he again will tell it to all the others, and then they will all fly off. When the professor comes into the garden there will not be a single flower left, and he will not be able to make out what has become of them."

"But how can the flower tell it to the others? The flowers cannot talk!"

"That's true!" answered the student, "but they make signs to one another. Haven't you seen when the wind blows a little that the flowers nod to one another and move all their green leaves? They understand it as plainly as if they spoke!"