The Land of the Blue Flower Read online

  On the King rode, and on and on and on, and the farther he went the more splendid and joyous his smile grew.

  But at no time during the day was it more beautiful than when he met the little cripple who had sat on the outside of the crowd on the first feast day, not expecting to see or hear anything.

  The cripple lived in a tiny hovel on the edge of the city, and when the glittering procession drew near it the small patch of garden was quite bare and had not a Blue Flower in it. And the little cripple was sitting huddled upon his broken door-step, sobbing softly with his face hidden in his arms.

  King Amor drew up his white horse and looked at him and looked at his bare garden.

  "What has happened here?" he said. "This garden has not been neglected. It has been dug and kept free of weeds, but my Law has been broken. There is no Blue Flower."

  Then the little cripple got up trembling and hobbled through his rickety gate and threw himself down upon the earth before the King's white horse, sobbing hopelessly and heart-brokenly.

  "Oh King!" he cried. "I am only a cripple, and small, and I can easily be killed. I have no flowers at all. When I opened my package of seeds I was so glad that I forgot the wind was blowing, and suddenly a great gust carried them all away forever and I had not even one left. I was afraid to tell anybody."

  And then he cried so that he could not speak.

  "Go on," said the young King gently. "What did you do?"

  "I could do nothing," said the little cripple. "Only I made my garden neat and kept away the weeds. And sometimes I asked other people to let me dig a little for them. And always when I went out I picked up the ugly things I saw lying about—the bits of paper and rubbish—and I dug holes for them in the earth. But I have broken your Law."

  Then the people gasped for breath, for King Amor dismounted from his horse and lifted the little cripple up in his arms and held him against his breast.

  "You shall ride with me today," he said, "and go to my castle on the mountain crag and live near the stars and the sun. When you kept the weeds from your bare little garden, and when you dug for others and hid away ugliness and disorder, you planted a Blue Flower every day. You have planted more than all the rest, and your reward shall be the sweetest, for you planted without the seeds."

  And then the people shouted until the world seemed to ring with their joy, and somehow they knew that King Mordreth's Land had come into fair days and they thought it was the Blue Flower magic.

  "But the earth is full of magic," Amor said to the Ancient One, after the feast on the plain was over. "Most men know nothing of it and so comes misery. The first law of the earth's magic is this one. If you fill your mind with a beautiful thought there will be no room in it for an ugly one. This I learned from you and from my brothers the stars. So I gave my people the Blue Flower to think of and work for. It led them to see beauty and to work happily and filled the land with bloom. I, their King, am their brother, and soon they will understand this and I can help them, and all will be well. They shall be wise and joyous and know good fortune."

  The little cripple lived near the sun and the stars in the castle on the mountain crag until he grew strong and straight. Then he was the King's chief gardener. The boy who was clever was made captain of his band, which became the King's own guard and never left him. And the gloom of King Mordreth's Land was forgotten, because it was known throughout all the world as The Land of the Blue Flower.

  About The Land of the Blue Flower

  When the young King Amor realizes that the people of his country are mistreating each other and the nature surrounding them, he takes it upon himself to teach them better. No easy task when you’ve also got a kingdom to rule. In fact, it would seem that all hope is lost, until the king learns of a magical flower, one that has the power to turn selfish people into compassionate and caring beings.

  ‘The Land of the Blue Flower’ was written by Frances Hodgson Burnett in 1904, long before Gretha Thunberg came along and begged us to start caring enough about each other and the planet.

  In many ways ‘The Land of the Blue Flower’ is a fairy tale ahead of its time, and a lesser-known children’s classic by the author of ‘The Secret Garden’.

 

 

  Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Land of the Blue Flower

 

 

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