'Don't say so,' interposed Pimpernel, 'because that is not true. There is a poem on a Daisy that will ever be remembered, and I have heard some children sing a pretty one about Buttercups and Daisies, besides.'
'Oh, of course you uphold these song-makers, because your name has appeared in print,' she interrupted, with a toss of her bonnie petals; 'but no one has ever noticed me.'
'Nonsense!' said Ragged Robin, who, having been of a wandering disposition, had seen and heard a great deal in his time; 'why, there is one poet who says,—
"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its fragrance on the desert air."
Therefore, if you are not mentioned by name, you certainly must be included among these unknowns who are born to blush unseen.'
'I don't want to be included among these "unknowns" then,' exclaimed the Flower angrily. 'I am sure I am'—she hesitated a moment—'quite as lovely as a Rose, or any other garden beauty;' but she could not help hanging her head for very shame whilst uttering this piece of self-conceit.
'Oh! oh! oh!' were the exclamations to be heard on all sides.
'So I am,' she persisted, going on now in sheer desperation, having proceeded too far to retract. 'My petals are delicately fair, with just a faint rosy blush, my pistils and stamens of a tender yellow, and my form, if fragile, is very graceful—so there!'
You may imagine the laughter that ensued as she ended with that emphatic 'so there!' laughter which could not be suppressed, although she plainly showed her anger at their behaviour; they could not help it, so flower-bells shook and leaves fluttered with mirth, even Quaker grass quivered with merriment.
'I would advise you to be more contented,' said a Honeysuckle, as she looked down upon the ambitious little Flower from her own elevated position; 'let me tell you it is not always those who are highest up in the world are the happiest; they feel the cold winds quite as keenly, perhaps more so.'