Algernon Blackwood

“ They cling to earth and never aspire to climb, but they hold the sweetest dew and nurse the tiniest little winds imaginable. Their patience is divine. They are proud to be the carpet for all walking, running things, and in their universal service is their strength. The rain stays longer with them than with grander flowers, and the best sunlight goes to sleep among them in great pools of fragrant and delicious heat. The daisies are a stalwart little people altogether. ”

“ Certainly they can coax humans into their own lovely world and keep them there. There is a hint of impudence in their private conduct, half audacity, half wickedness, that shows itself a little in the way they stare unwinkingly all day at everything above them⁠—at the stately things that tower proudly in the air⁠—then just shut up at sunset without a word of explanation or apology. They see everything, but keep their opinions to themselves. Because people notice them so little, and even tread upon their tiny and enquiring faces, they are up to things all the time⁠—undiscovered things. ”

“ Jinny, first awake that morning, looked out of her window to watch a squirrel playing, and noticed them. Then she told the others; and Maria, one eye above the blankets, ejaculated “Ah!” She claimed the daisies too.
Now, whereas a single daisy has no smell and seems a common, unimportant thing, a bunch of several hundred holds all the perfume of the spring. No flowers lie closer to the soil or bring the smell of earth more sweetly to the mind; upon the lips and cheeks they are softer than a kitten’s fur, and lie against the skin like tired eyelids. ”

“ All life was theirs, full, free and generous beyond conception. They owned the world, without even the trouble of knowing that they owned it. They lived, simply staring at the universe with eyes of exquisitely fashioned beauty. ”

“ He sighed with joy, as he thought of the long stretch of time.
“That was in our first reckless youth,” he answered, catching the gold of passionate remembrance from an amber fly that hovered for an instant and was gone.“I remember well. You were half hidden by a drop of hanging dew, but I discovered you! That lilac bud across the world was just beginning to open.” And, helped by the wind, he bent his shining head, taller than hers by a sixtieth of an inch, towards the lilac trees beside the gravel path. ”

“ There was, it is true, no sound of broken syllables, no speech which humans use to veil the very thing they would express; but there was that simpler language which all Nature knows, which cannot lie because it is unconscious, and by which constellations probably converse with buttercups or cedars with the flying drops of rain⁠—there was gesture. For gesture and attitude can convey all the important and necessary things, while speech in the human sense is but an invention of some sprite who wanted people to wonder what he really meant. ”

“ Nor is it always a sight of prey that makes the swallows dart so suddenly sidewards and away, but some chance message of joy or warning intercepted from the hosts of flowers in the soil.
And from this region of the flower-life comes, of course, the legend that fairies have emotions that last forever, with eternal youth, and with loves that do not pass away to die. Because the measurement of existence is a mightier business than with overdeveloped humans-in-a-hurry. ”

“ For they could regulate their perfume just as humans can regulate emotion.
Enormous periods passed away. A cloud that for a man’s “ten minutes” hid the sun, wearied them with depression, so that they simply closed their eyes and went to sleep. Showers of rain they loved, because it washed and cooled them and they felt the huge satisfaction of the earth beneath them as it drank; the sweet sensation of wet soil that sponged their roots, the pleasant gush that sluiced their bodies and carried off the irritating dust. ”

“ Grownups have these too, of course, whether they be kings, or married men, or private detectives. The child in us persists until the last hair and tooth fall out.
Thus, Jinny, Jimbo and Maria⁠—three survivals in an age when education considers childhood a disease to be cured as hurriedly as possible⁠—took their adventure the instant that it came, and each was proud with a complete assurance of superiority that his or her particular one was unique. To no one else in the world could such a thing have happened, least of all to the other two. ”

“ They prove their breeding by their perfect taste in dress, the well-bred being ever inconspicuous; and their simplicity conceals enormous, undecipherable wonder. One daisy out of doors is worth a hundred shelves of text books in the house. Their mischief, moreover, is not revenge, though some might think it so⁠—but a natural desire to be recognised and thought about and talked about a little. Daisies, in a word are⁠—daisies.
And it was by way of the daisies that Jinny’s great adventure came to her, the particular adventure that was her very own. ”

“ And so the old tired world went round and life grew more and more wonderful each day. For children are an epitome of life⁠—a self-creating universe.
That week was memorable for several reasons. Daddy, overworked in an office, went for a change by sea to Scotland, taking Mother with him; Aunt Emily, in her black silk dress that crackled with disapproval, went to Tunbridge Wells⁠—an awful place in another century somewhere; and Uncle Henry was left behind to “take charge of ‘em,’”⁠—“em” being the children and himself. ”

“ They are, perhaps, the common people of the flower world, but they have in virtue of that fact the beauty and simplicity of the common people. They own a subdued and unostentatious strength, are humble and ignored, are walked upon, unnoticed, rarely thought about and never praised; they are cut off in early youth by nowing machines ”

“ There seemed a little wave of movement over the lawn as though the flowers pressed nearer, aware at last that they were being noticed. And both humans, the big one and the little one, felt a thrill of sudden happiness and beauty in their hearts. The rapture of the Spring slipped into them. They concentrated all their thoughts on daisies.⁠ ⁠...
“I’m beginning to feel it already,” whispered the Little Human, turning to gaze at him as though that breath of air impelled her to.
The wind blew her voice across his face like perfume; he looked, but could not see her clearly; she swayed a little ”

“ For everything was plentiful and inexhaustible⁠—the heavens emptied light and warmth upon them without stint or measure; space poured about them freely, for they had no wish to move; they felt themselves everywhere, for all they needed came to them without the painful effort of busy things that hunt and search outside themselves ”

“ They know, it is said, the thoughts of Marble Whites and Clouded Brimstones, as well as the intentions of the disappearing golden flies; why wind keeps often close to the ground when the treetops are without a single breath; but, also, they know what is going on below the surface. They live, moreover, in every country of the globe, and their system of intercommunication is so perfect that even birds and flying things can learn from it. ”

“ Adventure means saying Yes, and being careless; children say Yes to everything and are very careless indeed: even their No is usually a Yes, inverted or deferred. “I won’t play,” parsed by a psychologist, means “I’ll play when I’m ready.” The adventurous spirit accepts what offers regardless of consequences; he who hesitates and thinks is a mere Policeman who prevents adventure. Now, everything offers itself to children, because they rightly think that everything belongs to them. Life is conditionless, if only people would let them accept it as it is. ”