She found the world in the peephole the day after the mailman dropped the flowers off for Mother. Mother sniffed the carnations—“Pretty,” she said—then sighed and sent them back.

“They’re mighty expensive,” said the mailman, but Mother just shook her head.

He left, Mother shut the door firmly behind him and walked back into the kitchen, and then little Matilda put her eye to the peephole in the door to see where the mailman went.

But she didn’t see the mailman. She saw a world of flowers thickly growing, a forest of flowers, and her mouth dropped open.