human
How warm it is! murmured the dandelions in the meadow.
gpt
Our heads are quite heavy, and our feet are hot. If it was not our duty to stand up, we would like nothing better than to sink down in the shade and go to sleep; but we must attend to our task and keep awake.
human
What can you have, you wee things, to keep you busy?
gpt
What, indeed?
human
Now, one can understand one so tall as I having to stand upright and do my duty; but you,--why, you are no taller than one of my green pods that I am filling with floss--
gpt
And not half so tall as one of my leaves that I must line with velvet,
human
Why, don't you know? It must be because you live so far away--there by the fence--that you don't know we are here to pin the grass down until it grows old enough to know it must not wander off like the crickets, or to blow away like the floss in your own pods. Young grass is very foolish,--I think I heard the farmer call it green the other day, but we don't like the expression ourselves,--and it would be apt to do flighty things if we did n't pin it down where it belongs. When we have taught it its lesson, we can go to sleep. We always stay until the last minute, and then we slip on our white nightcaps,--so fluffy and light and soft they are,--and lo! some day we are gone, no one knows where but the wind; and he carries us off in his arms, for we are too tired to walk; and then we rest until the next year, when we are bright and early at our task again.
gpt
Yes, we see. Even such wee things as you have your duties, and we are sorry you are so weary.
human
I don't know what is the matter with me, dear milkweed, but I am so faint, so faint, I think I shall die.