The Dandelion

THE Angel of the flowers came down to earth to search for the flower she loved the most. She came upon a gay tulip, all orange and red, standing stiff and proud in a garden, and the Angel said to the tulip: “Where should you like most of all to live?” “I should like to live on a castle lawn,” said the tulip, “where my beautiful colours would show against the grey castle walls.”

But the Angel turned away with sad eyes from the proud tulip, and spoke to the rose. “Where should you like most to live?” she asked the rose. “I should like to climb the castle walls,” said the rose, “for I am fragile, and delicate, and need help and shelter.” The Angel of the flowers turned sadly away from the rose, and hurried on until she came to the violet, and she said to the violet: “Where should you like most of all to live?” “Here, hidden in the woods,” said the violet. “The brook cools my feet, and the trees keep the warm sun from spoiling my beautiful colour.”

But the Angel turned away from the violet and went on until she came to the sturdy, yellow dandelion growing in the meadow grass. “And where should you like most of all to live?” asked the Angel. “Oh,” cried the dandelion, “I want to live wherever the happy children may find me when they run by to school, or play in the fields. I want to live by the roadside, and in the meadows, and push up between the stones in the city yards, and make everyone glad because of my bright colours.”

“You are the flower I love the most,” said the Angel of the flowers, as she laid her hand upon the dandelion’s curly, yellow head. “You shall blossom everywhere from spring till autumn, and be the children’s flower.”