the Ranunculus shone brightly, and looked again at Gerda. What
song could the Ranunculus sing? It was one that said nothing about Kay
either.

"In a small court the bright sun was shining in the first days of
spring. The beams glided down the white walls of a neighbor's house, and
close by the fresh yellow flowers were growing, shining like gold in
the warm sun-rays. An old grandmother was sitting in the air; her
grand-daughter, the poor and lovely servant just come for a short visit.
She knows her grandmother. There was gold, pure virgin gold in that
blessed kiss. There, that is my little story," said the Ranunculus.

"My poor old grandmother!" sighed Gerda. "Yes, she is longing for me,
no doubt: she is sorrowing for me, as she did for little Kay. But I
will soon come home, and then I will bring Kay with me. It is of no use
asking the flowers; they only know their own old rhymes, and can tell me
nothing." And she tucked up her frock, to enable her to run quicker; but
the Narcissus gave her a knock on the leg, just as she was going to
jump over it. So she stood still, looked at the long yellow flower, and
asked, "You perhaps know something?" and she bent down to the Narcissus.
And what did it say?

"I can see myself--I can see myself! Oh, how odorous I am! Up in the
little garret there stands, half-dressed, a little Dancer. She stands
now on one leg, now on both; she despises the whole world; yet she lives
only in imagination. She pours water out of the teapot over a piece of
stuff which she holds in her hand; it is the bodice; cleanliness is a
fine thing. The white dress is hanging on the hook; it was washed in the
teapot, and dried on the roof. She puts it on, ties a saffron-colored
kerchief round her neck, and then the gown looks whiter. I can see
myself--I can see myself!"

"That's nothing to me," said little Gerda. "That does not concern me."
And then off she ran to the further end of the garden.

The gate was locked, but she shook the rusted bolt till it was loosened,
and the gate opened; and little Gerda ran off barefooted into the wide
world. She looked round her thrice, but no one followed her. At last she
could run no longer; she sat down on a large stone, and when she looked
about her, she saw that the summer had passed; it was late in the
autumn, but that one could not remark in the beautiful garden, where
there was always sunshine, and where there were flowers the whole year
round.

"Dear me, how lo