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There were clusters of yarrow in bloom, spikes of yellow snap-dragons, and a great clump of thistles in their purple glory. She must tell her father about them, and have them rooted out. Would it hurt them to be killed? She felt suddenly sorry for them. A squirrel ran along and winked at her as he gave his tail an extra perk. Nothing was ever afraid of the little girl.
Harry told all about it to her and to the hot-tempered gentleman. "Now do you think it's true?" Polly asked the hot-tempered gentleman. "Hum! Ha!" said he, driving his hands through his hair. "You know I warned you you were going to the Snap-Dragons." Harry and Polly snubbed "the little ones" when they snapped, and utterly discountenanced snapping in the nursery.
Polly had not had the benefit of his experiences, and yet she improved also. In the first place, snapping, like other kinds of quarrelling, requires two parties to it, and Harry would never be a party to snapping any more. And when he gave civil and kind answers to Polly's smart speeches, she felt ashamed of herself, and did not repeat them. In the second place, she heard about the Snap-Dragons.
It lay down to the right, in a little hollow, and was approached by a short drive inclosed by stone walls overgrown by stonecrop and pennywort, and fringed with daffodils and snap-dragons: to the left, the wall was overtopped by the elders of a copse; to the right, it formed one side of a fruit garden.
"We are now about to visit the spacious chamber of the King of the Snap-dragons." "That is a flower," said the Languid Youth. "You will find him a gay old blossom," said the other.
I stood and gazed in delighted astonishment. Sun-gilded trees and flower-beds gay with blossom; lupins, snap-dragons, nasturtiums, spiry foxgloves, and mighty hollyhocks formed the foreground; over which a pair of sulphur-tinted butterflies flitted, unmindful of a buxom and miraculously clean white cat which pursued them, dancing across the borders and clapping her snowy paws fruitlessly in mid-air.
These were the days before they built the road from Liskane wide enough for motor-cars and other horrible inventions. Thirty years ago the way was so narrow that the briars and ferns brushed your face as you passed, and you could reach out your hand and pluck snap-dragons and dandelions and fox-gloves.
I pulled them and took them to the minister, and he put them in her hands. They used to put flowers in people's hands when they were dead. I don't know whether they do it now or not." "Sometimes it is done." I took up the sewing an my lap and made a few stitches. "Tell me some more of your mother's garden. Did she have winter pinks and bachelor's buttons and snap-dragons and hollyhocks in it?
"Come along, Harry," said the hot-tempered gentleman. "Wait a minute," said Harry. "You had better come," said the gentleman. "Why?" said Harry. "There's nothing to stop for. The raisins are eaten, the brandy is burnt out." "No, it's not," said Harry. "Well, almost. It would be better if it were quite out. Now come. It's dangerous for a boy like you to be alone with the Snap-Dragons tonight."
"Dear me!" said Harry. "If you can find nothing sharper to say than 'Dear me," said the Dragon, "you will fare badly, I can tell you. Why, I thought you'd a sharp tongue, but it's not forked yet, I see. Here they are, however. Off with you! And if you value your curls snap!" And before Harry could reply, the Snap-Dragons came on their third round, and as they passed they swept Harry with them.