ships, with the most delicate purple and azure
sails, so thin that you could see the sky through them, came tilting
along over the sea as if they were alive,--and so they were,--and drew
up, as if in order of battle, just before the mouth of the cave; and
then a silver trumpet sounded on the shore, and a swarm of hornets
appeared, whizzing and whirring all about the cave; and then there was
another trumpet, and another, about as loud as you may hear from a caged
blue-bottle, and compliments were interchanged, and a salute fired,
which frightened the little lady-fairies into all sorts of shapes, and
made the little fairy-bride jump up and ask if her time had come, though,
to tell you the truth, the noise did not appear much more terrible to
Rosebud than her little brother's pop-gun; and then a sort of barge, not
unlike the blossom of a sweet pea in shape, was manned from the largest
of the fleet, and, when it touched the bright sparkling sand, out leaped
a little prince of a fellow, with a bunch of white feathers in his hat,
plucked from the moth-miller, a sword like the finest cambric-needle
belted about his waist, and the most unimpeachable small-clothes.

This turned out to be the bridegroom; and after a few more flourishes,
and not a little pulling and hauling among the bridesmaids, the bride
and the bridegroom stood up together, and looked silly and sheepish, as
if butter wouldn't melt in their mouths; and after listening awhile to
an old droning-beetle, without hearing a word he said, they bowed and
courtesied, and made some sort of a reply, nobody could guess what; and
then forth stepped the master of ceremonies, a priggish-looking
grasshopper, with straw-colored tights, and a fashionable coat,
single-breasted, and so quakerish it set poor little Rosebud a-laughing,
in spite of all she could do, every time she looked at his legs; and
_then!_ out ran the ten thousand trumpeting bumble-bees, and the katydid
grew noisier than ever, and the cricket chirruped for joy, and the
bridegroom touched the bride's cheek, and pointed slyly toward a little
heap of newly gathered roses and violets, piled up afar off, in a
shadowy part of the cave, just underneath a trailing canopy of
changeable moss; the bride blushed, and the fairies tittered, and little
Rosebud turned away, and wished herself at home, and instantly the bride
and the bridegroom vanished! and the ships and the fairies! and the
lights and the music! and Rosebud fou