NOW you shall hear!
Out in the country, close by the roadside, there was a country house: you yourself have certainly once seen it.Before it is a little garden with flowers, and a paling which is painted. Close by it, by the ditch, in the midst of the most beautiful green grass, grew a little daisy. The sun shone as warmly and as brightly upon it as on the great splendid garden flowers, and so it grew from hour to hour.One morning it stood in full bloom, with its little shining white leaves spreading like rays round the little yellow sun in the centre. It never thought that no man would notice it down in the grass, and that it was a poor despised floweret; no, it was so well pleased, and turned to the warm sun, looked up at it, and listened to the lark1 carolling high in the air.
The little daisy was as happy as if it were a great holiday, and yet it was only a Monday. All the children were at school; and while they sat on their benches learning, it sat on its little green stalk, and learned also from the warm sun, and from all around, how good God is. And the daisy was very glad that everything it silently felt was sung so loudly and charmingly by the lark. And the daisy looked up with a kind of respect to the happy bird who could sing and fly; but it was not at all sorrowful because it could not fly and sing also.
“I can see and hear,”it thought:“the sun shines on me, and the wind kisses me. Oh, how richly have I been gifted!”
Within the palings stood many stiff aristocratic flowers----the less scent2 they had the more they flaunted3. The peonies blew themselves out to be greater than the roses,but size will not do it; the tulips had the most splendid colours, and they knew that, and held themselves bolt upright, that they might be seen more plainly. They did not notice the little daisy outside there, but the daisy looked at them the more, and thought,“How rich and beautiful they are! Yes, the pretty bird will certainly fly down to them and visit them. I am glad that I stand so near them, for at any rate I can enjoy the sight of their splendour!”And just as she thought that----“keevit!”----down came flying the lark, but not down to the peonies and tulips----no,down into the grass to the lowly daisy, which started so with joy that it did not know what to think.
The little bird danced round about it, and sang,
“Oh, how soft the grass is! And see what a lovely little flower, with gold in its heart and silver on its dress!”
For the yellow point in the daisy looked like gold,and the little leaves around it shone silvery white.
How happy was the little daisy----no one can conceive how happy! The bird kissed it with his beak4, sang to it, and then flew up again into the blue air. A quarter of an hour passed, at least, before the daisy could recover itself. Half ashamed, and yet inwardly rejoiced, it looked at the other flowers in the garden; for they had seen the honour and happiness it had gained, and must understand what a joy it was. But the tulips stood up twice as stiff as before, and they looked quite peaky in the face and quite red, for they had been vexed5. The peonies were quite wrong-headed: it was well they could not speak, or the daisy would have received a good scolding. The poor little flower could see very well that they were not in a good humour, and that hurt it sensible. At this moment there came into the garden a girl with a great sharp shining knife; she went straight up to the tulips, and cut off one after another of them.
“Oh!”sighed the little daisy,“this is dreadful; now it is all over with them.”
Then the girl went away with the tulips. The daisy was glad to stand out in the grass, and to be only a poor little flower; it felt very grateful; and when the sun went down it folded its leaves and went to sleep, and dreamed all night long about the sun and the pretty little bird.
Next morning, when the flower again happily stretched out all its white leaves, like little arms, towards the air and the light, it recognized the voice of the bird,but the song he was singing sounded mournfully. Yes, the poor lark had good reason to be sad: he was caught, and now sat in a cage close by the open window.
He sang of free and happy roaming, sang of the young green corn in the fields, and of the glorious journey he might make on his wings high through the air. The poor lark was not in good spirits, for there he sat a prisoner in a cage.
The little daisy wished very much to help him. But what was it to do? Yes, that was difficult to make out. It quite forgot how everything was beautiful around, how warm the sun shone, and how splendidly white its own leaves were. Ah! it could think only of the imprisoned6 bird, and how it was powerless to do anything for him.
Just then two little boys came out of the garden. One of them carried in his hand a knife big and sharp like that which the girl had used to cut off the tulips. They went straight up to the little daisy, which could not at all make out what they wanted.
“Here we may cut a capital piece of turf for the lark.”said one of the boys; and he began to cut off a square patch round about the daisy, so that the flower remained standing7 in its piece of grass.
“Pull off the flower!”said the other boy,
And the daisy trembled with fear, for to be pulled off would be to lose its life; and now it wanted particularly to live, as it was to be given with the piece of turf to the captive lark.
“No, let it stay,”said the other boy;“it makes such a nice ornament8.”
And so it remained, and was put into the lark's cage. But the poor bird complained aloud of his lost liberty, and beat his wings against the wires of his prison; and the little daisy could not speak----could say no consoling word to him, gladly as it would have done so. And thus the whole morning passed.
“Here is no water,”said the captive lark.“They are all gone out, and have forgotten to have me anything to drink. My throat is dry and burning. It is like fire and ice within me, and the air is so close. Oh, I must die! I must leave the warm sunshine, the fresh green, and all the splendour that God has created!”
And then he thrust his beak into the cool turf to refresh himself a little with it. Then the bird's eye fell upon the daisy, and he nodded to it, and kissed it with his beak, and said.
“You also must wither9 in here, you poor little flower.They have given you to me with the little patch of green grass on which you grow, instead of the whole world which was mine out there! Every little blade of grass shall be a green tree for me, and everyone of your white leaves a fragrant10 flower. Ah, you only tell me how much I have lost!”
“If I could only comfort him!”thought the little daisy.
It could not stir a leaf; but the scent which streamed forth11 from its delicate leaves was far stronger than is generally found in these flowers; the bird also noticed that, and though he was fainting with thirst, and in his pain plucked up the green blades of grass, he did not touch the flower.
The evening came, and yet nobody appeared to bring the poor bird a drop of water. Then he stretched out his pretty wings and beat the air frantically12 with them; his song changed to a mournful piping, his little head sank down towards the flower, and the bird's heart broke with want and yearning13. Then the flower could not fold its leaves, as it had done on the previous evening, and sleep; it drooped,sorrowful and sick, towards the earth.
Not till the next morning did the boys come; and when they found the bird dead they wept----wept many tears----and dug him a neat grave, which they adorned14 with leaves of flowers. The bird's corpse15 was put into a pretty red box, for he was to be royally buried----the poor bird!While he was alive and sang they forgot him, and let him sit in his cage and suffer want; but now that he was dead he had grandeur16 and many tears.
But the patch of turf with the daisy on it was thrown out into the high road: no one thought of the flower that had felt the most for the little bird, and would have been so glad to console him.
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1
lark
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| n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏 | |
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2
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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3
flaunted
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| v.炫耀，夸耀( flaunt的过去式和过去分词 )；有什么能耐就施展出来 | |
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beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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vexed
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| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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6
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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8
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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9
wither
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| vt.使凋谢，使衰退，(用眼神气势等)使畏缩；vi.枯萎，衰退，消亡 | |
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fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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frantically
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| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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13
yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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