And we danced together--and, first
of all, I had for my partner, a red rose--and then, an ash. They both
made love to me, and squeezed my waist with their hot, fibrous hands.
A poppy piped, a bramble played the concertina, and a lilac grew
desperately jealous of me and tried to claw my hair. Then the dancing
ceased, and I found myself in the midst of bluebells that shook their
bells at me with loud trills of laughter. And out from among them,
came a buttercup, pointing its yellow head at me. 'See! see,' it
cried, 'what Gladys is carrying behind her. Naughty Gladys!' And trees
and flowers--everything around me--shook with laughter. Then I grew
hot and cold all over, and did not know which way to look for my
confusion, till a willow, having compassion on me said, 'Take no
notice of them! They don't know any better.'
"I begged him to explain to me why they were so amused, and he grew
very embarrassed and uncomfortable, and stammered--oh! so funnily,
'Well if you really wish to know--it's a bud, a baby white rose, and
it's clinging to your dress.'
"'A baby! A baby rose!' shrieked all the flowers.
"'And it means,' a bluebell said, stepping perkily out from amidst
its fellows, 'that your lover is coming--your lover with a
troll-le-loll-la--and--well, if you want to know more ask the
gooseberries, the gooseberries that hang on the bushes, or the parsley
that grows in the bed,'--and at that all the flowers and trees
shrieked with laughter--'Ta-ta-tra-la-la'--and with my ears full of
the rude laughter of the wood I awoke.
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