said each rose. "The only thing thatI wish for is to be able to kiss the sun, because it is so warm andbright. I should also like to kiss those roses down in the water,which are so much like us, and the pretty little birds down in thenest. There are some up above too; they put out their heads and pipesoftly; they have no feathers like their father and mother. We havegood neighbours, both below and above. How beautiful existence is!"
  The young ones above and below- those below were really onlyshadows in the water- were sparrows; their parents were sparrowstoo, and had taken possession of the empty swallows' nest of lastyear, and now lived in it as if it were their own property.
  "Are those the duck's children swimming here?" asked the youngsparrows when they saw the feathers on the water.
  "If you must ask questions, ask sensible ones," said their mother."Don't you see that they are feathers, such as I wear and you willwear too? But ours are finer. Still, I should like to have them upin the nest, for they keep one warm. I am very curious to know whatthe ducks were so startled about; not about us, certainly, althoughI did say 'peep' to you pretty loudly. The thick-headed roses ought toknow why, but they know nothing at all; they only look at themselvesand smell. I am heartily tired of such neighbours."
  "Listen to the dear little birds up there," said the roses;"they begin to want to sing too, but are not able to manage it yet.But it will soon come. What a pleasure that must be! It is fine tohave such cheerful neighbours."
  Suddenly two horses came galloping up to be watered. A peasant boyrode on one, and he had taken off all his clothes except his largebroad black hat. The boy whistled like a bird, and rode into thepond where it was deepest, and as he passed the rose-bush he plucked arose and stuck it in his hat. Now he looked dressed, and rode on.The other roses looked after their sister, and asked each other,"Where can she be going to?" But none of them knew.
  "I should like to go out into the world for once," said one;"but here at home among our green leaves it is beautiful too. Thewhole day long the sun shines bright and warm, and in the night thesky shines more beautifully still; we can see that through all thelittle holes in it."
  They meant the stars, but they knew no better.
  "We make it lively about the house," said the sparrow-mother; "andpeople say that a swallows' nest brings luck; so they are glad ofus. But such neighbours as ours! A rose-bush on the wall like thatcauses damp. I daresay it will be taken away; then we shall,perhaps, have some corn growing here. The roses are good for nothingbut to be looked at and to be smelt, or at most to be stuck in ahat. Every year, as I have been told by my mother, they fall off.The farmer's wife preserves them and strews salt among them; then theyget a French name which I neither can pronounce nor care to, and areput into the fire to make a nice smell. You see, that's their life;they exist only for the eye and the nose. Now you know."
  In the evening, when the gnats were playing about in the warmair and in the red clouds, the nightingale came and sang to theroses that the beautiful was like sunshine to the world, and thatthe beautiful lived for ever. The roses thought that the nightingalewas singing about itself, and that one might easily have believed;they had no idea that the song was about them. But they were verypleased with it, and wondered whether all the little sparrows couldbecome nightingales.
  "I understand the song of that bird very well," said the youngsparrows. "There was only one word that was not clear to me. What does'the beautiful' mean?"