Page:Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales (1888).djvu/199

 and the fragrance was so strong and full, that the odour spread in every direction.

“This fragrance is a gift from heaven, Larsen,” said his master; “no human power could produce that.”

One day the gardener came in carrying a large crystal bowl of water, in which, resting on its leaves that were floating on the water, lay a beautiful water lily—a large, shining, blue flower, with its long thick stem in the water under it.

“An Indian lotus flower!” cried the nobleman. They had never before seen such a flower, and it remained in full bloom for days, both in sunshine and even after dark. Every one who saw it declared that it was a wonderfully lovely and rare flower.

Among others were the young ladies from the king’s palace, the princesses, kind hearted and clever young ladies, who were charmed with its beauty.

The nobleman valued this flower greatly, and on that account many people envied him, and among others the princesses at the king’s palace.

The nobleman went one morning into his garden to pluck a certain kind of flower that he wanted, and to have another look at the water lily, but he could not find it.

Hastily calling the gardener, he asked, “What has become of the blue lotus flower, Larsen? I have searched everywhere, in the hothouse and in the flower garden, but I cannot find it.”

“It is not much worth finding,” said the gardener; “it is only a mean common flower from the kitchen garden, beautiful as it is. It resembles the blue cactus flower, but it is really only the blossom of an artichoke.”

“You should have told me so at first,” replied his master; “we have made a mistake in supposing it a foreign and rare flower. It is your fault that we have made ourselves appear ridiculous before the young princesses. They saw it was an unknown flower to us, and considered it beautiful, but they have studied botany, and these scientific people do not trouble themselves about what grows in kitchen gardens. We could not have been in our senses, good Larsen, to place such a flower as that in a room and make ourselves ridiculous.’

So the beautiful blue and splendid flower, which belonged to the kitchen garden, was removed from the room, where it had no right to be, and sent to a distant part of the estate.

The nobleman blamed himself equally with his servant when he met the princesses, and acknowledged that the flower was only a kitchen garden blossom. “But I have already reproved my gardener,” he said, “for he made the first error in bringing it into the room, and by so doing misled me.

“It was a sin and a shame,” said the princess, when alone; “he showed us a splendid flower that we had never before noticed, and he pointed out the beauties that we did not look for; however, it is a lovely flower, after all, and I shall ask the castle gardener to send me every day an artichoke blossom, for my room.” And he did so.