“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.”