And would she know it was a bell if it was a bell. Did it come nearer and did she go nearer and was it just perhaps lightning and thunder.
All around the sun was shining and the bell was ringing and the woods were thinning and the green was shining. Please Rose please she was remembering. That is the way it was. It made her feel a little lonesome, until then she had been busy climbing but now she was beginning beginning hearing everything and it was a little lonesome.
Rose was a little lonesome, she had her blue chair. She was a little lonesome.
The bell was ringing but there was no singing and Rose went climbing up and on. And then gradually she came out of the trees and there she saw an enormous green meadow going up to a point and in the middle of the meadow green, it was green as grass, there was a little black dog way up all alone and shaking himself like a dog does. Oh said Rose and she almost sat down. It was the first word she had said of all the many that had come into her head since she first began to climb. And of course it was a round one. Oh is a round one. For the first time since she began to climb Rose did not know what to do next.
Once upon a time way back, there were always meadows with grass on them on top of every mountain. A mountain looked as if it had rocks way up there but really way up there there was always grass and the grass always made it look elegant and it was nice.
Grass is always the most elegant more elegant than rocks and trees, trees are elegant and so are rocks but grass is more so.
And here way up there was grass and it was going on and on and it is so much harder to climb up and up and up on grass than on rocks and under trees.
And to carry a blue chair way up there on and on through the grass because grass is steep steeper than rocks are, it was a very difficult day that day and that was the way Rose went on her way.
She had to what else could she do she had to see it through getting up there to be all the way there and to sit on her chair.
And when you are walking on grass it is harder to see where there is. And anyway what did it say. The grass did not say anyway, it was green and nothing green ever has anything to say.
Rose knew that that is why she always did prefer blue.
Rose was now going up and up the green grass meadow that went right on to the top. She did not say oh again she just went on. It was hot, and the green grass was hot and underneath the green grass there was ground and in that ground oh dear Rose almost stepped on it there was something round.
Rose had courage everywhere she just went on going up there.
It is hard to go on when you are nearly there but not near enough to hurry up to get there. That is where Rose was and she well she hardly could go on to get there. And where was there. She almost said it she almost whispered it to herself and to the chair. Where oh where is there.
But she went on and the grass was shorter and the slant was steeper and the chair was bluer and heavier and the clouds were nearer and the top was further because she was so near she could not see which way it was and if she went one way and the top was the other way could it be that she would never see what she could see. Oh deary me oh deary me what did she see. She did see and her eyes were round with fright and her hands and arms did hold her chair tight and suddenly green became blue and she knew that one would become two and three would become four and never again no never again would there ever be a door for her to go through.
But Rose was not like that, stumbling would be the beginning of tumbling and she would not tumble up but tumble down if she began to stumble and so she began to frown and she knew she would have to begin to count, one two one two one two one two.
Close your eyes and count one two open your eyes and count one two and then green would not be blue. So Rose began counting one two one two and she knew that she was counting one two one two and so her eyes were blue although her name was Rose. Of course her eyes were blue even though her name was Rose. That is the reason she always did prefer blue because her eyes were blue. And she had two eyes and each one of her two eyes was blue, one two one two.
And sooner than it could be true there she saw something that was not green nor blue, it was violet and other colors it was high up as high as the sky it was where she could cry it was a rain-bow. Oh yes oh no it was a rain-bow.
And Rose just went right through, she went right through the rain-bow and she did know that was what she would do. She had it to do and she went right through the rain-bow and then there she was right on the top so that there was no other top there just the top with room for the blue chair and Rose put the blue chair there and she sat upon the chair. And Rose was there.
She was all alone on the top of everything and she was sitting there and she could sing.
This was the song she sang,
It began.
Here I am.
When I wish a dish
I wish a dish of ham.
When I wish a little wish
I wish that I was where I am.
She stopped and sat awhile not that she ever got up, she was so pleased with sitting she just sat.
And then she sang,
When I see I saw I can
I can see what I saw I saw where I am sitting.
Yes I am sitting.
She sighed a little.
Yes I can see I am sitting.
She sighed again.
Yes I can.
Once when five apples were red,
They never were it was my head.
No said she no it was not my head it was my bed.
So she began again.
Once when apples were red
When all is said when all is said
Are apples red
Or is it said that I know which which I have.
She stopped to think
Rose stopped to think,
I think said Rose and she wriggled a little on her chair.
She was alone up there.
I think said Rose.
And then she began to sing.
Am I asleep or am I awake
Have I butter or have I cake,
Am I here or am I there,
Is the chair a bed or is it a chair.
Who is where.
Once more Rose began to sing.
It was getting a little dark and once more Rose began to sing.
I am Rose my eyes are blue
I am Rose and who are you
I am Rose and when I sing
I am Rose like anything.
I am Rose said Rose and she began to sing.
I am Rose but I am not rosy
All alone and not very cosy
I am Rose and while I am Rose
Well well Rose is Rose.
It was a little darker.
Rose sat a little tighter on her blue chair.
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