the flowers and the student, whom the counselor used to scold for putting silly ideas into her head. It was quite quiet in the bedroom where Ida was lying; the night-lamp was burning on the table and her father and mother were asleep.
"I wonder if my flowers are now lying in Sophia's bed," she said to herself, "how I should like to know!" She raised herself a little and looked toward the door, which was half open; in there lay the flowers and all her toys. She listened, and it appeared to her as if she heard some one playing the piano in the next room, very softly, and more beautifully than she had ever heard it before.
"I expect all my flowers are now dancing in there!" she said, "how I should like to see them!" But she dared not get up for fear of waking her father and mother. "If they would only come in here," she said; but the flowers did not come, and the music continued to play so beautifully that she could not resist it any longer,—it was too entrancing,—so she crept out of her little bed and went quite softly to the door and looked into the room. Oh, what an amusing scene met her sight!
There was no night-lamp in there, but still it was quite light; the moon was shining through the window right into the middle of the room! It was almost as light as day. All the hyacinths and tulips were standing in two long rows along the floor; there were none at all in the window, where only empty pots were to be seen. Down on the floor the flowers were dancing most gracefully round and round, doing the chain quite correctly and holding each other by their long green leaves as they swung round. And over at the piano sat a large yellow lily whom little Ida was sure she had seen last summer, for she remembered so well that the student had said: "How she is like Miss Lina!" but they all laughed at him then. But now Ida really thought that the long yellow flower was like Miss Lina, and had just the same manners when playing, putting her large yellow head first on one side and then on the other, and nodding it to keep time with the music. No one noticed little Ida. She then saw a large blue crocus jump right onto the middle of the table, where the toys were standing, and walk straight up to the doll's bed and pull aside the curtains; there lay the sick flowers, but they got up directly and nodded their heads to the others to show that they also wanted to join in the dance. The old incense-burner with the broken under-lip stood up and bowed to the pretty flowers; they did not appear at all ill, they jumped down among the others and looked so pleased.
Just then it seemed as if something fell down from the table. Ida looked that way; it was the Shrove-tide rod,[1] which had jumped down; it thought it also belonged to the flowers. It was really very pretty; at the top sat a little wax doll, which had just the same kind of broad hat on her
- ↑ The Shrove-tide rod is generally a three-branched flower-decoration, made of paper, about twelve to eighteen inches in height.
