head as the counselor wore; the Shrove-tide rod and its three red wooden legs jumped right into the midst of the flowers and stamped quite loudly; it was dancing the mazurka, and this the other flowers could not dance because they were too light and could not stamp.
All at once the wax doll on the rod began to grow bigger and bigger, whirled round above the paper flowers, and called out quite loudly: "What ideas to put into the child's head! It is pure imagination!" And then the wax doll looked exactly like the counselor with the broad hat, and was just as yellow and cross as he, but the paper flowers struck him across his
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THE FLOWERS LED SOPHIA INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE FLOOR AND DANCED WITH HER, SOME OF THEM FORMING A CIRCLE ROUND HER.
thin legs; and he shrank and shrank till he became a little wee bit of a wax doll again. He looked so very funny, little Ida could not help laughing! The Shrove-tide rod went on dancing and the counselor had to dance as well; there was no help for it, he had to dance whether he made himself big and long, or became the little yellow wax doll with the big black hat. Then the other flowers interceded for him, especially those that had been in the doll's bed, and at last the Shrove-tide rod stopped dancing.
At that moment there was a loud knocking in the drawer where Ida's doll Sophia lay among the other toys; the incense-burner ran to the edge of the table, laid himself flat down upon his stomach and managed to get
