the ball, as she, for her part, did not at all mind sleeping one night in the drawer.
But the flowers said: “We are very much obliged to you indeed; but we shall not live so long, for to-morrow we shall be quite withered. But now tell little Ida that she must bury us down in her garden near her canary-bird; there we shall appear again next summer, and grow more beautiful than we were this year.”
“No, you shall not die!” continued Sophie vehemently, kissing the flowers.
Suddenly the door of the drawing-room opened, and a great crowd of beautiful flowers came dancing in. Ida could not comprehend where these flowers came from, unless they were the flowers from the King’s pleasure-grounds. First of all entered two magnificent roses with golden crowns on, they were a King and a Queen; and then followed stocks and pinks bowing on every side. They had too a band of music with them: large poppies and peonies blew upon peashells till they were red in the face, and lilies of the valley and blue-
