Then she seated herself upon the drawer, and thought that one of the flowers would come and ask her; but not one of them came . Then she coughed , “Hem ! Hem! Hem!” but for all that not one came. The chimneysweep now danced all alone, and that was not at all so bad .

　　As none of the flowers seemed to notice Sophy , she let herself fall down from the drawer straight upon the floor, so that there was a great noise. The flowers now all came running up, to ask if she had not hurt herself; and they were all very polite to her, especially the flowers that had lain in her bed . But she had not hurt herself at all ; and Ida's flowers all thanked her for the nice bed, and were kind to her, took her into the middle of the floor, where the moon shone in, and danced with her; and all the other flowers formed a circle round her. Now Sophy was glad, and said they might keep her bed; she did not at all mind lying in the drawer.

　　But the flowers said , “We thank you heartily , but we cannot live so long . Tomorrow we shall be quite dead . But tell little Ida she is to bury us out in the garden, where the canary lies; then we shall wake up again in summer, and be far more beautiful . ”

　　“No, you must not die,” said Sophy; and she kissed the flowers .

　　At that moment the door opened , and a great number of splendid flowers came dancing in. Ida could not imagine whence they had come; these must certainly all be flowers from the king's castle yonder. First of all came two glorious roses , and they had little gold crowns on ; they were a king and a queen . Then came the prettiest stocks and carnations; and they bowed in all directions. They had music with them. Great poppies and peonies blew upon pea-pods till they were quite red in the face . The blue hyacinths and the little white snowdrops rang just as if they had bells on them. That was wonderful music ! Then came many other flowers, and danced all together; the blue violets and the pink primroses, daisies and the lilies of the valley. And all the flowers kissed one another. It was beautiful to look at !　　At last the flowers wished one another good night ; then little Ida, too, crept to bed, where she dreamed of all she had seen.

　　When she rose next morning, she went quickly to the little table, to see if the flowers were still there. She drew aside the curtains of the little bed; there were they all, but they were quite faded, far more than yesterday. Sophy was lying in the drawer where Ida had laid her; she looked very sleepy.

　　“Do you remember what you were to say to me?” asked little Ida.