A GARDEN ATHIRST.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 96, 16 January 1908, Page 9

A GARDEN ATHIRST.

4—__ ' A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.' • "I dont care.who does hoar me," said bold aster in tho oornor of the garden, "but ttis kind of i treatment is not to bo borne by niiy, self-rcspedtirig' flower—even a, weed would.kick at it. I haven't had a drop for throe days, -and I'm as dry. as a , Sahara daisy." Tho flowers looked at each other with surprise. None had darod to raise a voice in protest against the absence of water, for very fear that tho Moving' Thing would hear them, and porbaps cut their lives short by imprisonment in a stuffy 'parlour.-'.' • "You're not so badly off,-".' ventunid.'-an olegant carnation, that was leaning for support against ,an ancient cricket wiekefi,' "I' tnoticcd a dark stain near you Ipst evening thai 1 '"looked, suspiciously.; like , t-ho Sacred; J'jßliiir.I*.1 *. , "l'oohl" said, tlio aster, "a moro dribble from the Moving Thing's can—a mero , petal full that ho forgot to give those fearful.cabbage frights ovor there. For the -life of me I can't guess' why they got so much. attention! I'vo never seen them sport a bloom ' yet, and they got'ten canfuls last 'evening. . It's a jolly shame!" • "Don't wrangle, denrs," pleaded. a-grace-•ful cosmos, pale with thirst, a fow. yards away. "That is not going to help us. 1 .feci 1 faint enough in all conscience, but you'll ;all. 1 be dead in a fow ;lays if you wasto your • onorgy in talk. 1 don't fancy.: that the. Moving Thing can hear what we say, and 1 I doubt if ho would understand our langiir 'ago if ho did. Cheer up, dears; perhaps ho 1 may come this evening, though it's nearly : dark already." , ' "Faugh!" said tho bold aster. , "I foel.so sorry for you all," said a little ■ picotco; tenderly. "I had a lovely time today., 1 was just drooping in sheer despair when a little Moving Thing toddled along, ' with a faco as sweet as an early pansy. She : had a tiny red can. quite full, of lilixir, and : was telling herself that somebody called— well, it. sounded like Daddy Tisnuis,. had ' given it to her. I nearly shrieked out when > 1 thought-it was going past, but it saw me, > sat on my cousin over there —look how : • crushed he is—and just- poured it over me— i it was so delightful!" ■ .• : "Yes, I noticed, that," snarled a gailnt ) holly-book. "I asked a bee to sting her, but • ho said he wasn't bound that way." "Oh—l faint—l die!" murmured an exi piring .sweet-pea, "I was to liavo been in • the Show," but now nil is over. Good-bye, sweet sisters! Try to brighten the world a , little with your fragrance and colour, as I 5 have done, and you will havo lived the good I life." • , "As. I said before," said - tho talkative - aster, "if something doesn't happen there i will bo an epidemic of death amongst us. , Even my voice is not so strong as it was 1 yesterday." t "Oh, don't do3pair," said tho kindly cosmea r now lost in the darkness. "Try and sleep— i hush, 1 hear a Moving Thing. Does it bring 1 L'lixir—l wonder." j , The aster lookod through the wicker-work i fence, and descried in the gloom a Thing , treading softly, . and pulling something . quietly behind it. . , "Anybody about?" it whispered to some- ? thing else. "No," snid a voice over so far . away. "Then go and turn-tho tap'on—hot i too full." r '.'Hooray 1" shrieked the aster inaudibly. ,- "Something's going to happen." • : There was a soft, sizzling sound, and then 1 —oh, rupture—a spray of the Sacred - JSlixir. - : "Thanks, thanks, and ever thanks," said i tho gratoful cosmea, but the others only i laughed and drank deliriously.