The Land of the Blue FlowerBurnett, Frances Hodgson
Science
The Land of the Blue Flower
Burnett, Frances Hodgson
Fairy tales
Amor lifted his little head and looked. He was only just old enough to
be beginning to understand things, but he loved the Ancient One and all
he said and did.
Far below the mountain crag lay the sea. In the night, while it slept,
it had looked dark blue or violet, but now it was slowly changing its
color. The sky was changing too--it was growing paler and paler--next it
grew faintly brighter, so did the sea; then a slight flush crept over
land and water and all the small floating clouds were rosy pink. King
Amor smiled because birds' voices were to be heard in the trees and
bushes, and something golden bright was rising out of the edge of the
ocean, and sparkling light danced on the waves. It rose higher and
higher and grew so dazzling and wonderful that he threw out his little
hand with a shout of joy. The next moment he started back because there
rose near him a loud whirr and beating of powerful wings as a great bird
flew out of a crag near by and soared high into the radiant morning
heavens.
"It is the eagle who is our neighbor," said the Ancient One. "He has
awakened and gone to give his greeting to the sun."
And as the little King sat upright, enraptured, he saw that from the
dazzling brightness at the edge of the world there leaped forth a ball
of living gold and fire, and even he knew that the sun had risen.
"At every day's dawn it leaps forth like that," said the Ancient One.
"Let us watch together and I will tell you stories of it."
So they sat by the battlement and the stories were told. They were
stories of the small grains lying hid in the dark earth waiting for the
golden heat of the sun to draw them forth into life until they covered
the tilled fields with waving wheat to make bread for the world; they
were stories of the seeds of fair flowers warmed and ripened until they
burst into scented blossoms; they were stories of the roots of trees and
the rich sap drawn upward by the heat until great branches and thick
leafage waved in the summer air; they were stories of men, women, and
children walking with light step and glad because of the gold of the
sun.
"Every day it warms, every day it draws, every day it ripens and gives
life. And there are many who forget the wonder of it. Lift your head
high as you walk, young King, and often look upward. Never forget the
sun."
At every dawning they rose and saw together the wonder of the day; and
the first time the sky was heavy with gray clouds and the sun did not
leap upward from behind the edge of the world the Ancient One said
another thing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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