小意达的花 [小伊达的花（中）]

　　"But how can one flower tell it to another? For, you know, flowers cannot speak." 　　"That they cannot, certainly," replied the student; "but then they make signs. Have you not noticed that when the wind blows a little, the flowers nod at one another, and move all their green leaves? They can understand that just as well as if they talked."
　　"Can the professor understand these signs?"asked Ida.
　　"Yes,certainly.He came one morning into his garden,and saw a great stinging-nettle standing there, and making signs to a beautiful red carnation with its leaves. It was saying, "You are so pretty, and I love you so much." But the professor does not like that kind of thing, and he directly slapped the stinging-nettle upon its leaves, for those are its fingers; but he stung himself, and since that time he has not dared to touch a stinging-nettle."
　　"That was funny," cried little Ida; and she laughed.
　　"How can any one put such notions into a child"s head?" said the tiresome privy councillor, who had come to pay a visit, and was sitting on the sofa. He did not like the student, and always grumbled when he saw him cutting out the comical funny pictures―― sometimes a man hanging on a gibbet and holding a heart in his hand, to show that he stole hearts; sometimes an old witch riding on a broom, and carrying her husband on her nose. The councillor could not bear this, and then he said, just as he did now, "How can any one put such notions into a child"s head? Those are stupid fancies!"
　　But to little Ida, what the student told about her flowers seemed very entertaining; and she thought much about it. The flowers hung their heads, for they were tired because they had danced all night; they were certainly ill. Then she went with them to all her other toys, which stood on a pretty little table, and the whole drawer was full of beautiful things. In the doll"s bed lay her doll Sophy, asleep; but little Ida said to her, "You must really get up, Sophy, and manage to lie in the drawer for tonight. The poor flowers are ill, and they, must lie in your bed; perhaps they will then get well again."
　　And she at once took the doll out; but the doll looked cross, and did not say a single word; for she was angry because she could not keep her own bed.
　　Then Ida laid the flowers in the doll"s bed, pulled the little coverlet quite up over them, and said they were to lie still and be good, and she would make them some tea, so that they might get well again, and be able to get up tomorrow. And she drew the curtains closely round the little bed, so that the sun should not shine in their eyes.
　　The whole evening through she could not help thinking of what the student had told her. And when she was going to bed herself, she was obliged first to look behind the curtain which hung before the windows where her mother"s beautiful flowers stood――hyacinths as well as tulips; then she whispered quite softly, "Ｉ know you"re going to the ball tonight!" But the flowers made as if they did not understand a word, and did not stir a leaf; but still little Ida knew what she knew.
　　 When she was in bed she lay for a long time thinking how pretty it must be to see the
　　beautiful flowers dancing out in the king"s castle. "Ｉ wonder if my flowers have really been there?”And then she fell asleep. In the night she awoke again: she had dreamed of the flowers, and of the student with whom the councillor found fault. It was quite quiet in the bedroom where Ida lay; the night-lamp burned on the table, and father and mother were asleep.
　　"Ｉ wonder if my flowers are still lying in Sophy"s bed?" she thought to herself. "How I should like to know it!" She raised herself a little, and looked at the door, which stood ajar; within lay the flowers and all her playthings. She listened, and then it seemed to her as if she heard some one playing on the piano in the next room, but quite softly and prettily, as she had never heard it before.
　　"Now all the flowers are certainly dancing in there!" thought she."Oh, how much I should like to see it!" But she dared not get up, for she would have disturbed her father and mother.
　　"If they would only come in!" thought she. But the flowers did not come, and the music continued to play beautifully; then she could not bear it any longer, for it was too pretty; she crept out of her little bed, and went quietly to the door, and looked into the room. Oh, how splendid it was, what she saw!
　　There was no night-lamp burning, but still it was quite light: the moon shone through the window into the middle of the floor; it was almost like day. All the hyacinths and tulips stood in two long rows on the floor; there were none at all left at the window. There stood the empty flower-pots. On the floor all the flowers were dancing very gracefully round each other, making a perfect chain, and holding each other by the long green leaves as they swung round. But at the piano sat a great yellow lily, which little Ida had certainly seen in summer, for she remembered how the student had said,"How like that one is to Miss Lina." Then he had been laughed at by all; but now it seemed really to little Ida as if the long, yellow flower looked like the young lady; and it had just her manners in playing―― sometimes bending its long yellow face to one side, sometimes to the other, and nodding in tune to the charming music! No one noticed little Ida. Then she saw a great blue crocus hop into the middle of the table, where the toys stood, and go to the doll"s bed and pull the curtains aside; there lay the sick flowers, but they got up directly, and nodded to the others, to say; that they wanted to dance too. The old chimney-sweep doll, whose under lip was broken off, stood up and bowed to the pretty flowers: these did not look at all ill now; they jumped down among the others, and were very merry.
　　
　　“但一朵花儿怎么能告诉其他花儿呢？因为，你知道的，花儿不会说话呀。”
　　“当然，它们不会说话。”学生答道，“但它们会做动作。你没注意过，风一吹起来，花儿就相互点头，还把所有的叶子都摇晃起来吗？它们互相都懂对方的意思，和说话一样。”
　　“教授也懂这些姿势吗？”小伊达问。
　　“是的，他懂。他有天早晨走进花园，看见一株大荨麻站在那儿，正用叶子对一株漂亮的红石竹打招呼。它的意思是说，‘你真漂亮，我太爱你了。’但教授可不喜欢这种事，他朝荨麻的叶子上就打了一巴掌，因为这些叶子就是荨麻的手指。但教授刺着了自己的手，从那时起，他再也不敢去碰荨麻了。”
　　“真有意思，”小伊达笑着说。
　　“怎么能把这种事灌输给孩子呢？”一个讨厌的枢密顾问说。他刚来这里拜访，就坐在沙发上。他不喜欢这个学生，当他看见学生剪出滑稽好笑的图案时，总是要发牢骚。这些图案有的是一个人吊在绞刑架上，手握一颗心，表示他偷过心；有时是一个老巫婆骑在一把扫帚上跑，鼻子上挂着自己的丈夫。枢密顾问可受不了这个，所以他就像刚才那样，总是说：“怎么能把这种事灌输给孩子呢?这些都是愚蠢的胡思乱想！”
　　但对小伊达来说呢，学生给她讲的有关花的事儿，她很感兴趣，总是琢磨这件事。花儿耷拉下脑袋，是整夜跳舞累的。肯定是给累病了。于是她带着它们去找自己别的玩具，这些玩具都放在一个漂亮的小桌子上，抽屉里也尽是好东西。她的玩具苏菲躺在玩具床上，睡着了。但小伊达对它说：“你得起床了，苏菲，今晚你得到抽屉里去睡。花儿都病了，它们得躺在你的床上，这样它们也许会好起来的。”
　　她马上把小玩具娃娃拿开，但它显得很不高兴，一言不发。它生气是因为不能睡自己的床了。
　　然后小伊达把花儿放在玩具娃娃的床上，拉过小被子盖在它们身上，还嘱咐它们乖乖地睡觉，她好给它们准备一些茶，这样它们就会好起来的，明天就能站直了。她把帘子紧紧地拉在小床周围，免得让阳光照到花儿的眼睛。
　　整整一晚上，她都忍不住想到那个学生对她说的话。她自己上床睡觉的时候，也得先瞧瞧窗帘后面，她妈妈在窗前摆了一些漂亮的花儿：风信子和藏红花，然后她悄悄地说：“我知道今晚你们要去参加舞会！”但花儿似乎根本不懂她的话，连叶子都不动一动。不过小伊达还是相信她所知道的事。
　　她在床上躺了很长时间，老是琢磨着去看花儿在国土的城堡里跳舞，那个景象会多么漂亮呀！“我不知道自己的花儿是不是也去了那儿？”然后她就睡着了。夜里她又醒了：她梦见那些花儿，还有那个被枢密顾问批评的学生。小伊达睡觉的房间十分寂静，桌上的夜灯在燃烧，爸爸和妈妈在睡觉。
　　“不知道我的花儿是不是还躺在苏菲的床上？”她想道，“我真想弄明白！”她稍稍支起了身子，朝门口看，房门是半掩着的。她看到花儿和她的玩具都在里面。她仔细地听，好像听见有人在隔壁的房间里弹钢琴，但弹得很轻，很美，她觉得自己从没有听到过。
　　“所有的花儿肯定都在那儿跳舞呢！”她想，“噢，我真想去瞧瞧！”但她不敢起来，怕惊醒爸爸妈妈。
　　“它们要是能进来就好了！”她想。但花儿没有进来，音乐还是弹得那么好听。她再也忍不住了，因为乐声太美了。她从小床上爬了下去，蹑手蹑脚地走向门口，朝那个里间看。噢，她看到的一切，真是美极了！
　　那里没有夜灯照明，但仍然很亮：月光从窗户照进来，落在地面中央，就像白天一样亮。所有的风信子和藏红花在地上排成长长的两列。窗户上一朵花儿也没有了，只有一些空空的花盆。地面上，所有的花儿都围起来，组成了一个完美的舞圈，十分优雅地跳着舞。它们将各自长长的绿叶拉在一起，转着圈摇摆。但在钢琴边坐着一个大大的黄色百合花，小伊达在夏天肯定是见过的，因为她记得学生说过，“这朵花儿多么像丽娜小姐啊！”，这话还招来大家的哄笑。但这时小伊达发现，这长长的、黄色的花儿真的像那位年轻的女士。它弹琴的样子也特别像那位小姐――一会儿将长形的黄脸儿偏向这边，一会儿又偏向那边，合着动听的音乐节拍点头。没有谁注意到小伊达。她看见一株藏红花跳上了桌子中央，那儿放着玩具。然后它一直走到玩具娃娃床上，把窗帘拉到一边。生病的花儿就躺在那儿。但它们一下子就起来了，朝其他花儿点头致意，意思是说也要跳舞。那个下嘴唇被碰掉了的玩具扫烟囱人，起身向年轻的花儿鞠躬。它们现在看起来什么病也没有，蹦到大家中间，尽情地跳舞。（未完待续）