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 . -LSB- Illustration : The little people weave their summer curtains from skeleton leaves -RSB- 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 , where 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 . -LSB- Illustration : There was a good deal going on in the Baby Walk -RSB- 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 trunks and they shut like umbrellas , deluging the little plants beneath with snow . ' O you naughty , naughty child ! '
XXXXX cried indignantly , for she knew what it was to have a dripping umbrella about your ears .
Maimie Persian Walk elderberry first holly pelisse quinces right to-night