Page 132 - СКАЗКИ СНЕЖНОГО ЭЛЬФА

‘Hi, ‘ the Flower greeted them affably, ‘Who are you?’
‘Hi,’ replied the beautiful creatures. ‘We are snowflakes.’
‘And I’m the Flower.’ It sounded proud.
Silvery peals of laughter in response, and the snow-
flakes started dancing around, touching the Flower with
their transparent hands.
‘Thinking -ha!-it is a flower, but doesn’t it look like us,
snowflakes? That’s what you are, just a snowflake.’
‘You don’t say,’ it replied. ‘I feel like a flower.’
‘Where is your stem then, where are your leaves and
roots? Why are you flying above instead of holding on
tight to your Mother Earth? And why are your petals made
of crystals of ice? Are there any flowers like that?’ The
snowflakes kept laughing it off.
The Big Snow Cloud joined them, disapprovingly sway-
ing its sides , and the North Wind, a romantic random
walker, nursed it in its wind arms.
‘You were born as a snowflake, it is true, but if you feel
like a flower, no doubt you will be it, believe me. Here am
I, now knowing how to turn into Notherny, the captain of
the North Seas. I can even smoke a pipe,’ the Wind roared.
‘So I can become a real flower, can’t I?’ The flowerflake
said hopefully.
‘Time will tell,’ the Wind whispered, flying away. ‘But
you should be after it and believe in it, all the same.’
The flowerflake somewhat calmed down and be-
gan to be after and believe, in other words, to wait and
dream. Later, when the Big Snow Cloud told everybody to
fall down and the snowflakes started going down on the

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