Page:Fairy tales and stories (Andersen, Tegner).djvu/153

Rh "Can you remember what you were to tell me?" said little Ida, but Sophia looked very stupid and did not say a single word.

"You are not at all kind," said Ida, "and yet they all danced with you." So she took a little cardboard box, on which were painted beautiful birds; she opened it and put the dead flowers into it.

"That will make a pretty coffin for you!" she said, "and when my Norwegian cousins come here, they shall help me to bury you in the garden, so that you can grow up next summer and be prettier than ever!" Her Norwegian cousins were two fine boys, whose names were Jonas and Adolph; their father had given them each a new cross-bow, and they had brought these with them to show Ida. She told them about the poor flowers that were dead, and they were allowed to bury them. Both the boys went first with their cross-bows on their shoulders, and little Ida followed behind with the dead flowers in the beautiful box. A little grave was dug in the garden. Ida first kissed the flowers and then laid them in the box in the grave, while Adolph and Jonas shot with their cross-bows over it, for they had neither guns nor cannons.