It was the Closing of the Gates . Immediately the last clang had died away Maimie distinctly heard a voice say , `` So that 's all right . '' It had a wooden sound and seemed to come from above , and she looked up in time to see an elm tree stretching out its arms and yawning . She was about to say , `` I never knew you could speak ! '' when a metallic voice that seemed to come from the ladle at the well remarked to the elm , `` I suppose it is a bit coldish up there ? '' and the elm replied , `` Not particularly , but you do get numb standing so long on one leg , '' and he flapped his arms vigorously just as the cabmen do before they drive off . Maimie was quite surprised to see that a number of other tall trees were doing the same sort of thing and she stole away to the Baby Walk and crouched observantly under a Minorca Holly which shrugged its shoulders but did not seem to mind her . She was not in the least cold . She was wearing a russet-coloured pelisse and had the hood over her head , so that nothing of her showed except her dear little face and her curls . The rest of her real self was hidden far away inside so many warm garments that in shape she seemed rather like a ball . She was about forty round the waist . There was a good deal going on in the Baby Walk , when Maimie arrived in time to see a magnolia and a Persian lilac step over the railing and set off for a smart walk . They moved in a jerky sort of way certainly , but that was because they used crutches . An elderberry hobbled across the walk , and stood chatting with some young quinces , and they all had crutches . The crutches were the sticks that are tied to young trees and shrubs . They were quite familiar objects to Maimie , but she had never known what they were for until to-night . She peeped up the walk and saw her first fairy . He was a street boy fairy who was running up the walk closing the weeping trees . The way he did it was this , he pressed a spring in the trunk and they shut like umbrellas , deluging the little plants beneath with snow . `` Oh , you naughty , naughty child ! ''
XXXXX cried indignantly , for she knew what it was to have a dripping umbrella about your ears .
Maimie Persian Walk cabmen elderberry first pelisse quinces right to-night