The Pond

by Carl Ewald

THE WATER LILY

"Buzz ... buzz ...!" said the bee and flew away.

"You humbug!" said the water-lily.

"You idiot!" said the spear-wort.

"That's the worst of keeping bad company," said the water-lily.

"It comes of your mountebank ways, of course," said the spear-wort. "They're enough to drive respectable people from the pond."

They could think of nothing more to say and lay on the water and looked angrily at each other.

"Oh dear!" said little Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "Where on earth is one to go to find poetry?"