Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Kiki. Her family had a garden, and Kiki was the one who took care of it. Kiki loved getting her hands dirty. She loved taking care of every flower, tree, and bush that grew in her garden. She watered them, talked to them, and even told them stories.
Spring, with its warm sunshine and gentle rain, had come once more. Kiki was so happy sitting in the garden with her hands in the soil. But after some days, Kiki’s flowers still did not wake up. Their heads hung down, and for the first time, she could not see a single bloom.
Kiki began to cry. “What’s the matter with my flowers?” she said. “I do everything I can to please them.”
Just then, a light breeze listened to what she said and said to her, “Do you know what your flowers need? They want music to wake them up.”
“Music!” said Kiki. “How can I give my flowers music?”
So the breeze went away but soon came back leading all the little birds. The birds each had a song that they loved to sing, so they crept under the leaves and began to sing sweetly.
Kiki listened, and soon the roses began to lift their heads and look around.
“Would you like to have music, too?” called the little brown thrush to the violets.
“Oh yes, yes! How beautiful!” sang the violets.
Next the birds began to whistle their happiest songs. Bluebirds, robins, and finches all joined in. The little flowers opened wide their eyes and looked up trying to find the happy birds.
Kiki danced softly and gently moved the leaves so that the birds could look at the flowers too. Still the roses and lilies looked so sad.
“Haven’t you flowers that you can make dance, Kiki?” asked the breeze.
“I haven’t any music for the flowers that like to dance,” said Kiki.
But, see, the wind had heard. He shook the branches of the trees, and soon all the little leaves began to swing to and fro. The lovely tall pine, the noble white birch, and the old shady maple began to bow to each other like a lovely fairy dance.
And all this time Kiki was dancing too. She turned, and she twisted, and she spun. How the wind laughed! When the big trees have made a great bowing to each other, this is what they sometimes whisper together: “Little Kiki is dancing; don’t you think she is good to her flowers?”
Then the wind whistled softly, and Kiki’s birds were happy.
“Do you think,” said the sparrow to his friend, “that all the sounds in the world put together would make music enough to wake everyone to life?”
“Perhaps not,” said the little boy; “still, the music would be the prettiest thing in the world.”
“If I had music like that in my heart,” whistled the bird, “I’d open my beak and sing at the top of my lungs.”
But look! The green grass surprised everyone by growing four times bigger, and stretching and growing all of a sudden that morning into flowers, and plantains, and daisies—all the loveliest plants and blooming things.
“Tie it all together,” whistled the songbird, “and it will be one great band of lovely singers. But,” he added suddenly, “the music is not good enough unless our hearts sing, too.”
“Listen to them, Kiki! Listen to them!” they all said.
“All the blossoming grass and the birds of the trees are presenting their love to you. Dance as the trees are doing. Let your flowerhead swing to and fro to set an example to them all. How easy that is when once you know how.”
And soon, Kiki danced around and around as the green grass had said. Flower answered flower on the right, flower answered flower on the left. All looked at Kiki, and Kiki looked at them now.
Were ever such merry little dancers before? She held out her arms. Dandelions rich with its gold, the red daisies and the blue-eyed daisies, the white lilies and the sweet violets all came to hold Kiki’s hands.
“Join the dancers! Join the dancers, O roses in the bushes! They are waiting for you!”
Before she knew it, Kiki was in the midst of a great circle of all her flowers, who twinkled and shimmered, and danced round and round.
“Tie all the flowers together into the prettiest girdle that they can find, and the lovely souls will shine through,” whistled the sparrow. “But before you finish, bracelet your little arm with purple violets.”
“I was just going to say that,” sang the finch.
Soon Kiki’s little arms and her waist were covered with flowers, while the bluebirds and brown thrushes all begged so sweetly, “Will you give us a blue ribbon to tie our wings together? It will make us the happiest birds in the world.”
But no, Kiki had no blue ribbons.
Then came the wind blowing from the western hills with a big cream-colored sheet of paper in his hand. The first paper kite had come all the way from the prairies to play the part of the blue ribbon.
So a kite was sent EVERYWHERE—spread open it was to be a party-ball.
It went, and it went, and it went—until some say it may be still dancing up in that world of blue.
And yes, yes, flowers danced under that kite—the most beautiful flowers to be seen in all the world—with Kiki going first and all the flowers following her.
“History only sees bits of what is going on everywhere,” said a wise old man, looking up into the sky; “but don’t you think that it was Kiki and her flowers who first invented parlor-theatres and earrings and things of that kind for everybody’s benefit and entertainment?”
And then the old man looked into the distance and said, “The names are very, very different, but still the thing is the same.”
So Kiki danced, and the wind whistled, and the sun and the birds talked together; but at last they all had to rest. Kiki sat down the middle of her garden, and held the cheerfullest council she had ever enjoyed.
“That was a delightful party, wasn’t it, Kiki?” said the grass.
“Yes,” said the violets. “Our hearts all sang, too.”
“What are you going to do next?” asked the big trees.
Kiki sat and thought a little while and then she said, half to herself: “A little girl, at least, ought to have a visit from her dear good godmother, shouldn’t she?”
“To-day’s the best time!” said all who had been having the journey.
“Yes, to-day’s the best time,” whispered the big trees.
“Blessings on her thousand times!” said a bird swinging under the roof of Kiki’s house.
And Kiki flew indoors to greet her fairy godmother, Hillariena; and her flowers kept reading all sorts of things in the great book out-doors.