And then she remembered if she saw a boy or a man dwarf not a fairy nothing so foolish as that but a dwarf something little that should have been big and then if she saw it and it was not a female but a man then everything would be better and better and she would get the mountain the mountain would not get her.
And just then was it a pen was it a cage was it a hut but anyway there was no but, she saw it was a dwarf, and it was not a woman it was a man and if it knew how, and it did, away it ran, so Rose oh Rose was as happy then as any hen and she fell on her chair and embraced it there the blue chair.
And then she said perhaps it was not a dwarf perhaps it was a little boy and I could have it for a toy, she knew what a little boy was because she had her cousin whose name was Willie even if he was a little silly. That is the way Rose felt about it but not on the mountain up there, there she would not care if Willie was silly if he would only be there.
Rose did not want Willie, it was at night and she was not really resting and yet why did she think Willie was singing about what a day it was when Rose was not there. As she thought of that she almost let go her chair and went and went down and not up there. And then of course Willie never came. Why not when Willie was his name. Why not.
And so Rose went on again.
And now it was really night and when she could see them the stars were bright, and she remembered then that they say when the stars are bright rain comes right away and she knew it the rain would not hurt the chair but she would not like it to be all shiny there. Oh dear oh dear where was that dwarf man, it is so easy to believe whatever they say when you are all alone and so far away.
What did Rose see close, that is what she never can tell and perhaps it is just as well, suppose she did tell oh dear oh dear what she saw when she fell. Poor dear Rose. She saw it close. Never again would she stay on that spot, the chair quick the chair anywhere but there.
Rose and the chair went on, it was dark at least it would have been if it had not been so bright, alright, alright it was alright of course it was alright it was just night, that is all it was just at night.
What is it that water does do.
It falls it does too
It rises up that is when it is dew but when it falls, it is a water-fall and Rose knew all about that too, Rose knew almost everything that water can do, there are an awful lot when you think what, dew lakes rivers oceans fogs clouds and water-falls too, the thing that Rose heard it was night and Rose heard what she heard, dear little bird dear little water and dear little third, not dew, not a few but a water otter, a brown water otter, a long water otter and Rose said not you no not you you cannot frighten me no not you.
So then Rose was frightened all through Rose and the chair which was blue and the otter the brown otter, Rose would have liked him better if he had been blue, and then the water-fall, the water-fall, the water-fall, the water was full of water-fall. Rose carrying the chair went to look behind there to see if there was room for the blue chair. There always is room behind a water-fall when it is tall, and this water-fall even in the night was quite tall.
So Rose went in there it was all dark darker than out there and then she put down the chair and then she saw she did not know but it was so, she did see it there behind the water-fall, although it was all dark there. It was written three times just how it looked as if it was done with a hair on a chair, and it said, oh dear yes it said, Devil, Devil, Devil, it said Devil three times right there. There was no devil there of course there was no devil there there is no devil anywhere devil devil devil where. But just there where there might be a chair and written in large writing and clear in the black there, it was written there.
Dear me, Rose came out with her blue chair she decided no she would not sit down there. She decided she did not like water to fall, water fall water fall, that is what cows call but there was no cow there there was only writing there. It was too bad that Rose could read writing otherwise she would not have known that it said devil three times there. There are people who cannot read writing, but Rose was not one of them. Oh no.
So Rose and the blue chair went away from there she never could go down not there not ever again there, she could never go anywhere where water is falling and water does fall even out of a faucet, poor Rose dear Rose sweet Rose only Rose, poor Rose alone with a blue chair there.
So she went on climbing higher and higher and higher and blinking, the stars were blinking and she had to think of something. If she did not she would think of seeing that, was the Devil round, was he around, around round, round around, oh dear no think of Pépé, do not think of cousin Willie, he could go around and around, Willie did, and do not think of the blue chair after all the seat of a chair, might it be round oh dear around and around, and Pépé Pépé the little dog who bit her, no he was not round, well his eyes were but not his teeth, they bit oh dear she just thought of that, they had told her that little dogs like Pépé when there are many they bite at the back of the legs of little donkeys and the donkeys fall and the little dogs eat them and do they when they eat a donkey get round like a ball, and there was the moon it was setting a little flat but it was a little round oh dear and it looked as if there was a little girl way up there in the moon with its hair flying and partly lying and she had no chair oh dear oh dear up there.
What a place a mountain could be it looked so steep and its sides so straight and the color so blue and now one two three all out but she and red white and blue all out but you and if there was a cock it was the time when it crew, but no there was no cock, there was no hen there was no glass pen, there was only Rose, Rose Rose, Rose and all of a sudden Rose knew that in Rose there was an o and an o is round, oh dear not a sound.
Rose was a rose, she was not a dahlia, she was not a butter-cup (that is yellow), she was not a fuchsia or an oleander, well Rose wake Rose, Rose had not been asleep oh dear no, the dawn comes before the sun, and the dawn is the time to run, it is easy to run before the sun and Rose did. She was now not among the bushes which scratched but among trees which have nuts and she liked that, anybody would, and she did.
It is wonderful how many trees there are when they are all there and just then all the trees were all there, tree trunks are round that is if you go around but they are not round up into the air. Rose drew a deep breath of relief, and she lifted up her chair and she was almost glad she was there there where she was.
The dawn is not rosy but it is quite cosy and in the woods it really is so, they did once say the woods the poor man’s overcoat, and it is true there in the woods no rain comes through no sun comes through no snow comes through no dust comes through, there has to be a lot of anything before in a thick wood it does come through, and this was so and now Rose could know that this was so so early in the morning before there is a morning, and so Rose began to think of singing she thought how nice it would be to sing there in the woods where there were only trees and nothing, perhaps rocks and leaves and nuts and mushrooms but really not anything and perhaps she would like to begin singing, singing with her blue chair. And then she thought of course it always did happen as soon as she began to sing she began to cry and if she began to cry well no matter how much she would try when she began to sing she would begin to cry. And then there she was in the woods, they said the woods were a covering and she had her blue chair and she had to think of something but if she began to sing or if she began to say something. Well when you are all alone alone in the woods even if the woods are lovely and warm and there is a blue chair which can never be any harm, even so if you hear your own voice singing or even just talking well hearing anything even if it is all your own like your own voice is and you are all alone and you hear your own voice then it is frightening.
So Rose did not sing but she had to do something.
And what did she do well she began to smile she was climbing all the while climbing not like on a stair but climbing a little higher everywhere and then she saw a lovely tree and she thought yes it is round but all around I am going to cut Rose is a Rose is a Rose and so it is there and not anywhere can I hear anything which will give me a scare.
And then she thought she would cut it higher, she would stand on her blue chair and as high as she could reach she would cut it there.
So she took out her pen-knife, she did not have a glass pen she did not have a feather from a hen she did not have any ink she had nothing pink, she would just stand on her chair and around and around even if there was a very little sound she would carve on the tree Rose is a Rose is a Rose is a Rose is a Rose until it went all the way round. Suppose she said it would not go around but she knew it would go around. So she began.
She put the chair there she climbed on the chair it was her blue chair but it excited her so, not the chair but the pen-knife and putting her name there, that she several times almost fell off of the chair.
It is not easy to carve a name on a tree particularly oh yes particularly if the letters are round like R and O and S and E, it is not easy.
And Rose forgot the dawn forgot the rosy dawn forgot the sun forgot she was only one and all alone there she had to carve and carve with care the corners of the Os and Rs and Ss and Es in a Rose is a Rose is a Rose is a Rose.
Well first she did one and then the pen-knife seemed not to cut so well so she thought she would find a shell or a stone and if she rubbed her knife hard on it until it shone it would cut again just as it did before the knife began to groan. So she had to climb up and down on the chair and she had to find a stone and she had to go on and on, and at last well was it still dawn was there a sun well anyway at last it was more than begun it was almost done and she was cutting in the last Rose and just then well just then her eyes went on and they were round with wonder and alarm and her mouth was round and she had almost burst into a song because she saw on another tree over there that some one had been there and had carved a name and the name dear me the name was the same it was Rose and under Rose was Willie and under Willie was Billie.
It made Rose feel very funny it really did.
She climbed on and on and she could not tell not very well whether it was night or day but she knew it was day and not night because it was really quite bright, it might though yes it might have been night. But was it.
Well anyway she was climbing away she and the chair and she almost thought that she was almost there and then was it that she fell but anyway she did hear a bell, it was a tinkle and she heard it clearly it might be that a stone had stumbled and hit the garden chair, it might be that the chair had hit something right there or it might be that it was a cat that had a bell or it might be that it was a cow that had a bell or a sheep or a bird or even a little dog that might be running there chasing a low flying crow, or it might be a telephone, not very likely but it might, or it might be a dinner bell, or it might not be a bell at all it might be just a call, or it might be a lizard or a frog or it might be dear me it might be a log, rolling over rocks and water, but no it was a bell how can you tell if a bell is a bell.
There are so many things that are just funny it might just be silver money, anyway Rose was there and she certainly did think she knew she had heard a bell. Did she hear a bell.
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