If I were just to tell the things that Bessie Bell remembered I shouldtell you some very strange things. Bessie Bell did not know whethershe remembered them, or just knew them, or whether they just grew,those strange things in some strange country that never was anywhere inthe world; for when Bessie Bell tried to tell about those strangethings great grown wise people said: "No, no, Bessie Bell, there isnothing in the world like that."
So Bessie Bell just remembered and wondered.
She remembered how somewhere, sometime, there was a window where youcould look out and see everything green, little and green, and alwayschanging and moving, away, away—beyond everything little, and green,and moving all the time. But great grown wise folks said: "No, thereis no window in all the world like that."
And once when some one gave Bessie Bell a little round red apple shecaught her breath very quickly and her little heart jumped and thenthumped very loudly (that is the way it seemed to her) and sheremembered: Little apple trees all just alike, and little apple treesin rows all just alike on top of those and again on top of those untilthey came to a great row of big round red apples on top of all.
Rut great grown people said: "No, no, Bessie Bell, there are no appletrees in all the world like that."
And one time Bessie Bell was at a pretty house and somebody sat her ona little low chair and said: "Keep still, Bessie Bell."
She kept still so long that at last she began to be afraid to move atall, and she got afraid even to crook up her little finger for fear itwould pop off loud,—she had kept still so long that all her roundlittle fingers and her round little legs felt so stiff.
Then one, great grown person said: "She seems a very quiet child." Andthe other said: "She is a very quiet child—sometimes."
But just then Bessie Bell turned her head, and though her round littleneck felt stiff it did not pop!—and she saw—something in a cornerthat was blue, green, and brown, and soft, and she forgot how afraid tomove she was, and she forgot how stiff she thought she was, and sheforgot how still she was told to be, and she jumped up and ran to thecorner and cried out: "Pretty! Pretty! Pretty!"
One grown person took up the Thing that was blue, and green, and brown,and soft, and waved it to and fro, to and fro in front of Bessie Bell.
And Bessie Bell clapped her hands, and jumped for joy, and laughed, andcried: "Boo! boo! boo!"
And Bessie Bell ran right into the Thing that was blue, and green, andbrown, and soft, and she threw out her round little arms and claspedthem about the Thing that was blue, and green, and brown, and soft!
And she pulled it over her face, and she laughed and cried forjoy—because she remembered—
But the great grown person who had brought Bessie Bell to the prettyhouse said: "Oh, Bessie Bell! Why, Bessie Bell! For shame, BessieBell! How could you do so to the beautiful peacock-feather-fly-brush!"
So Bessie Bell could only cry—and that very softly—and feel ashamedas she was bid, and forget what it was that she remembered.
Bessie Bell might have remembered one time when a great house was alldesolate, an