'A Flower Piece'

Two young girls disagree about how to have pretend tea, and whether to 'be real people' or dance together.

Reminiscent of 'The Peach-Tree' in portraying the fragile emotional world of childhood, the story ends with the younger child disappearing with a 'spasm of sadness' across her face, leaving nothing 'to interrupt the gaiety of the dancing child, the flowers about the earth and the blackthorn tree scattering its shower of lovely stars.'

In the New Statesman and Nation (October 10, 1931), The Black Boxer Tales (1932), Thirty Tales (1934), The Bride Comes to Evensford and Other Tales (1949), Selected Short Stories of H.E. Bates (1951), Seven by Five / The Best of H.E. Bates (1963). Reprinted in The Best Short Stories of 1932 (London: Cape and New York: Dodd, Mead, 1932), The Best British Short Stories, 1932 (1932), Argosy (December 1934).