LILLA’S DREAM.
Beautiful was the May morning that Lilla, with joyful steps and innocent delight, strolled over the pastures and through the woods. She ran about over the moss-covered rocks, and plucked the gay columbines that bent at their sides for shelter. She walked by the sparkling brook, and threw herself down amongst the violets that decked its borders, and her ear was delighted with the joyous gurgling of its waters, and with the cheerful melody of the spring birds, and the drowsy hum of the newly-awakened insects. She returned home with her basket full of flowers, and her heart and mind full of those beautiful feelings and thoughts which good angels delight to infuse into the minds of little children; and laying herself on her couch, she fell into a sweet sleep, and she dreamed that she was walking in a garden of fruit trees, and that it was the joyous springtime of the year; and though there were various kinds of trees in the garden, such as the apple, the pear, the peach, and the plum, also many kinds which Lilla’s waking eye had never seen, yet they were all in full bloom. The peach trees bore pink blossoms; the plum, cherry, and pear trees, white; and so full of blossoms were the trees, that she could scarcely see any green leaves. The ground beneath the trees was covered with flowers of almost every hue; and the blossoms looked so glad, that Lilla wondered they did not sing out for joy, as the birds and insects did.
That moment, a honey-bee that was buzzing near a rose-bush, whispered in her ear, and said, “They do sing; they are at this moment singing a joyous song in concert, but your senses are too gross to perceive it; I can hear it, and I can understand all their words.”
“Oh!” cried Lilla, “I wish I were a honey-bee, that I too might hear it!” and she stood still, and listened very intently, scarcely daring to breathe. Soon she thought her hearing had grown more clear, and she could distinctly perceive a sound like the far-off tinkling of little bells, and her heart leaped for joy. Breathless, she continued to listen, till at length she could even distinguish the words, and their song was that of gladness and gratitude for their existence. Lilla listened a long time in delight, and then she went and sat down on a little green mound to rest. While she sat there, a frog came hopping up the bank; Lilla was about to frighten him away, but he looked up into her face with an expression of so much kindness, that she thought it seemed to say, “come near, little maid, let us be friends;” and he smiled roughly with his great mouth; and she said, “Speckled-sides, why do you not sing like the birds? you have a mouth big enough; and even the blossoms on the trees are singing this bright spring morning, and yet you are silent; what right have you to take up your abode in this place, so full of melody, if you cannot sing?”
“Indeed!” exclaimed Speckled-sides, tossing up his head, and looking mighty proud, “do but follow me to the nearest brook, where my companions are holding a concert, and you will soon see;” and he turned from her, and hopped down the bank as fast as he could go.
Lilla followed him into a deep meadow, through which ran the pretty streamlet. The ground all round the brook was blue with violets, and they sang the same song as did the blossoms in the garden. This meadow was a sunny place; there were trees to shelter it from the wind on every side, but so far off, that their shadows did not reach the spot where Lilla stood, and the warm sun-beams felt pleasantly as they fell upon her neck. Speckled-sides leaped into the brook, and, sitting up as straight as he could, so that his head might be seen out of the water, joined his loud voice with those of the other frogs. Lilla perceived that the song of the frogs did not glide from their mouths in graceful undulations, like those of the birds, but that it was monotonous and discordant, yet did it delight her soul. It seemed like the warmth of the sun-beams; it gave her the idea of newly awakened life, and warmth, and joy.
“It is the song,” said she, “which always brings to mind the thoughts of spring, that season of returning life and gladness; I love to listen to it, for there is music even in its monotony;” and she laid herself down upon the bed of blue violets by the side of the brook, as she had done in the morning; and as she lay there, she saw nothing but the blue sky; she heard the voices of birds around and above her, but she saw them not; and it seemed as if the sky came down nearer and nearer to her, or that she was lifted up towards it, and the voices of the birds seemed like the voices of invisible spirits, singing around her. She saw nothing but beauty; she heard nothing but song; she felt nothing but the pleasant warmth of the sun-beams; and her little heart was full of joy and love. She turned her face toward the brook which flowed through the meadow in various windings, leaping over bright pebbles, which sparkled in the sunlight like gems.
“Little brook,” said she, “whither art thou going? Perhaps thou canst not tell thyself, beautiful brook!”
“I am free! I am free!” cried the brook; “and I know not, neither do I care, whither I go. I have been chained up all winter, with a cold, cold chain; and now that I am free, I will run without stopping, till Jack Frost binds me again.”
“Then,” said Lilla, “I will follow and see;” and she ran along by the side of the brook, which led her through many flowery meadows, and at length into a deep dell. When Lilla had followed it down the steep, and stood at the bottom of the dell, her little soul was full of wonder; and clasping her hands in a transport of delight, she exclaimed, “this must be heaven or some fairy land.” The ground and all the rocks were covered with moss of the most brilliant green, and it felt as soft to her little feet as a velvet cushion; and the sun, which was shining over her head through the foliage, was luminous—yet it was not like daylight, nor was it like moonlight; it shone with a green brilliancy, so that everything in the dell gleamed like liquid emeralds. There were many beautiful flowers growing up out of the green moss, and beautiful birds singing among the trees; the squirrels and the green lizards ran along the branches. Down at the very bottom of the dell, there was a large flat rock covered with red cup moss; some of these fairy goblets were standing half full of dew, and others were thrown over on their sides, and some of them were broken; there were also berries and broken nuts scattered about the rock. Presently a squirrel jumped up and began to gather them; then Lilla approached, and took one of the goblets; the squirrel looked up into her face, and smilingly said, “Good morning.” He then took a goblet, and asked politely if she would drink some dew with him; and they drank off their cups together.
“Pray tell me, Nut-cracker,” said Lilla, “what company has been feasting here on this rock; these broken goblets seem to tell of high glee and festivity.”
“Why, the fairies, the fairies, to be sure; dost thou not know the fairy goblets? This dell belongs to king Oberon and queen Titania, and joyous indeed are the revels they hold here.”
“I should like to see one of the fairies,” said Lilla.
“Come with me,” said Nut-cracker, “and I will show you one.”
So he went leaping along over the green moss, and as Lilla ran after, it seemed to her that she was flying, so fast did she have to run that she might keep pace with him. He led her into an open part of the dell, where the trees were not so thick, and where the ground was entirely covered with flowers of almost every hue.
“There is Dew-drop, a very pretty fairy,” said Nut-cracker, pointing to a sylph-like figure in the midst of the flowers.
“Let us go,” said Lilla, “and see what she is doing.”
So they went to the fairy, and they said, “What dost thou with the flowers, pretty being? thou dost not seem to be plucking them.”
“Do you see the beautiful figures on these flowers?” asked the fairy.
“Oh! yes,” replied Lilla.
“Well,” said the fairy, “they have a meaning which, perhaps, you have not dreamed of; these pencilings are musical notes, and we alone can understand them—and we sing our songs from them. There are about the flowers great mysteries; on some of them are beautiful stories, and the songs which we sing are here written—and when we learn them, we write them on the brain of some sleeping mortal whose soul delights in melodies; when he awakes he gives them forth to the world. The stories we write on the brain, as we said, but the mysteries we keep to ourselves.”
“Oh!” said Lilla, “make me to understand the notes, that I may sing more sweetly than the birds.”
Then the fairy taught her one of the songs, and it seemed in her dream as if she lifted up her voice and sang. Louder and louder it grew, till she seemed to fill the whole air with her music.
Then Dew-drop asked Lilla if she would like to go and amuse herself in the Elfin’s Cave; and as she did not know what sort of a place this was, she was curious to see it, and requested Dew-drop to guide her thither. Now Dew-drop called two of her torch-bearers, the fire-flies, to light them through the dark cave.
They went on together, and when they had entered the cave, Dew-drop said—“Now we will amuse ourselves. Thou seest how rocky are the sides of the cave. This rock is soft and flaky, like slate-stone, and is very easily split apart; let us open some of it, and see what we can find between the flakes.” And by the light of the fire-flies they began to split the flaky rock, and to the great surprise of Lilla, they found between the flakes beautiful pictures of every description. She also found musical notes, which they sang, and the hollow cave echoed to their voices. After Lilla had looked at everything she could find, they left the cave; and Dew-drop, bidding her good morning, returned to the flowers.
“Lilla!” cried a little voice from the branches of an apple-tree, under which she stood.
She looked up, and espied the smiling face of Nut-cracker, looking down upon her through the foliage; he was sitting on a bough of the tree, holding in his little paws an apple, from which he was picking out the seeds and eating them. He threw down one of the apples to Lilla, who, at Nut-cracker’s request, began to save her seeds. While she was picking them out, she said to them:
“Poor prisoners! what a miserable life you must lead, shut up in the very centre of this dark apple.”
“No matter,” answered they, “we are content; we do not live for ourselves; yesterday was for the sake of to-day, and to-day for the sake of to-morrow; and we are formed for the sake of the tree which now lies in embryo within us. Unlike selfish human beings, all we desire is, that the end of our existence may be answered.”
Lilla walked away, and seeing an apple-tree in full blossom, she said,—“This tree and its fair blossoms live for themselves, no doubt.”
“Nay,” answered the tree, “I draw nourishment from the earth, and spread out my leaves that they may receive heat and life from the sun; the showers of rain are for the sake of the fruit we bear; we clothe ourselves in blossoms, because they are the means of producing seed.”
“Yes,” said the blossoms, “we are content to wither and drop off as soon as our task is done; for it is for the sake of the fruit that we exist, and our fruit for the sake of man; so, when our fruit is eaten, the seeds are free to mix themselves in the mould, in order to send forth another tree.”
Lilla left the tree, and presently came to a part of the dell where the flowery vines were climbing up and stretching themselves from limb to limb, forming a soft hammock, or cradle; and, climbing up one of the trees, she leaped into the flowery hammock, and the wind came and rocked her to and fro so high that she was thrown out of it, and the sudden fright awoke her. She opened her eyes, and found her sister was shaking her, instead of the wind.