It was shortly before she was sufficiently incubated to leave her glass
prison, and she was fine and plump, and had begun to roll over and bump
her head against the glass, surprising herself greatly, for she could
not see the glass. If she had stayed a little longer she would have been
afraid to move at all, for wherever there was nothing to be seen there
might be that hard, smooth wall that hurt her.
She was lying flat on her downy pillow one morning, watching the faces,
when something stirred at the foot of the pillow. She raised her head a
very little but could see nothing, but as soon as her head fell back the
thing moved again. She was sure it moved, and she waited quietly, and
again it moved. This time there seemed to be two of the things. It was
puzzling, for the nurse never allowed anything interesting inside the
case.
Marjorie lay low, and presently, up, up, into her range of vision crept
a little pink and white affair with five short, plump branches, and just
behind it arose another. She cooed with pleasure.
The things seemed quite tame and unafraid, and they came nearer until
they stood quite upright on plump white branches. Marjorie reached
out her dimpled hands, which wandered a little uncertainly in the air,
wavering to and fro, until one came in contact with one of the plump,
mysterious things. She grasped it firmly, and it was soft and pleasant
to the touch.
The crowd of faces paused and increased in number. They seemed greatly
interested as she tried to catch the thing, and one old man offered
to bet she would catch it. He was immensely tickled when she did and
grinned delightedly. Marjorie held fast to her captive.
She pondered what she should do with it, and finally decided that it
must be edible. She drew it closer to her face, and it resisted and
tugged to get away, but she dragged it on relentlessly.
It was a hard fight. The old man coached her, cheering her on to fresh
endeavors, and, thus encouraged, she made one great final effort and
pulled the soft pink thing into her lips, and the old man laughed long
and loud and wiped his eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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