now dark enough for me to see that every flower was shining with
a light of its own. Indeed it was by this light that I saw them,
an internal, peculiar light, proceeding from each, and not
reflected from a common source of light as in the daytime. This
light sufficed only for the plant itself, and was not strong
enough to cast any but the faintest shadows around it, or to
illuminate any of the neighbouring objects with other than the
faintest tinge of its own individual hue. From the lilies above
mentioned, from the campanulas, from the foxgloves, and every
bell-shaped flower, curious little figures shot up their heads,
peeped at me, and drew back. They seemed to inhabit them, as
snails their shells but I was sure some of them were intruders,
and belonged to the gnomes or goblin-fairies, who inhabit the
ground and earthy creeping plants. From the cups of Arum lilies,
creatures with great heads and grotesque faces shot up like Jack-
in-the-box, and made grimaces at me; or rose slowly and slily
over the edge of the cup, and spouted water at me, slipping
suddenly back, like those little soldier-crabs that inhabit the
shells of sea-snails. Passing a row of tall thistles, I saw them
crowded with little faces, which peeped every one from behind its
flower, and drew back as quickly; and I heard them saying to each
other, evidently intending me to hear, but the speaker always
hiding behind his tuft, when I looked in his direction, "Look at
him! Look at him! He has begun a story without a beginning, and
it will never have any end. He! he! he! Look at him!"

But as I went further into the wood, these sights and sounds
became fewer, giving way to others of a different character. A
little forest of wild hyacinths was alive with exquisite
creatures, who stood nearly motionless, with drooping necks,