The Land of the Blue Flower

ByFrances Hodgson Burnett

Illustrated

Part One

The Land of the Blue Flower was not called by that name until the tall, strong, beautiful King Amor came down from his castle on the mountaincrag and began to reign. Before that time it was called King Mordreth'sLand, and as the first King Mordreth had been a fierce and cruel kingthis seemed a gloomy name. 

A few weeks before Amor was born, his weak, selfish boy-father--whosename was King Mordreth also--had been killed while hunting, and his fairmother with the clear eyes died when he was but a few hours old. Butearly in that day she sent for her venerable friend and teacher, who wassaid to be the oldest and wisest man in the world, and who long ago hadfled to a cave in the mountains, that he might see no more of the famineand disorder and hatred in the country spread out on the plains below. 

He was a marvelous old man, almost a giant in size, and having greatblue eyes like deep sea-water. They, too, were clear eyes like the fairQueen's--they seemed to see all things and to hold in their depths nosingle thought which was not fine and great. The people were a littleafraid of him when they saw him go striding majestically through theirstreets. They had no name for him but The Ancient One. The lovely Queendrew aside the embroidered coverlet of her gold and ivory bed and showedhim the tiny baby sleeping by her side. 

"He was born a King, " she said. "No one can help him but you. "

The Ancient One looked down at him. 

"He has long limbs and strong ones. He will make a great King, " he said. "Give him to me. "

The Queen held out the little newborn one in her arms. "Take him awayquickly before he hears the people quarreling at the palace gate, " shesaid. "Take him to the castle on the mountain crag. Keep him there untilhe is old enough to come down and be King. When the sun sinks behind theclouds I shall die, but if he is with you he will learn what Kingsshould know. "

The Ancient One took the child, folded him in his long gray robe andstrode majestically through the palace gates, through the ugly city andout over the plains to the mountain. When he began to climb its steepsides the sun was setting and casting a golden rose color over the bigrocks and the wild flowers and bushes which grew on every side, so thatthere seemed no path to be found. But the Ancient One knew his wayanywhere in the world without a path to guide him. He climbed andclimbed, and little King Amor slept soundly in the folds of his grayrobe. He reached the summit at last and pushing his way through a jungleof twisted vines starred all over with pale sweet-scented buds, he stoodlooking at the castle which was set on the very topmost crag, and lookedout over the mountain's edge at the sea and the sky and the spreadingplains, below. 

The sky was dark blue now and lit by a myriad stars, and all was sostill that the world seemed thousands of miles away, and ugliness andsqualor and people who quarreled seemed things which were not true. Asweet cool wind blew about them as the Ancient One took King Amor fromthe folds of his gray robe and laid him on the carpet of scented moss. 

"The stars are very near, " he said. "Waken, young King, and see how nearthey are and know they are your brothers. Your brother the wind isbringing to you the breath of your brothers the trees. You are at home. "

Then King Amor opened his eyes, and when he saw the stars in the darkblueness above him he smiled, and though he was not yet a whole day oldhe threw up his small hand and it touched his forehead. 

"Like a King and a soldier he salutes them, " said the Ancient One;"though he does not know he did it. "

The castle was huge and splendid though it had been deserted for ahundred years. For three generations the royal owners had not cared tolook out on the world from high places. They knew nothing of the windand the trees and the stars; they lived on the plains in their cities, and hunted and rioted and levied heavy taxes on their wretched people. And the castle had lived through its summers and winters alone. It hadbattlements and towers which stood out clear against the sky, and therewas a great banquet hall and chambers for hundreds of guests, and roomsfor a thousand men at arms, and the courtyard was big enough to hold atournament in. 

In the midst of its space and splendor the little King Amor lived alonebut for the companionship of the Ancient One and a servant as old ashimself. But they knew a secret which had kept them young in spite ofthe years they had passed through. They knew that they were the brothersof all things in the world, and that the man who never knows an angeredor evil thought can never know a foe. They were strong and straight andwise, and the wildest creature stopped to give them greeting as itpassed, and they understood its language when it spoke. Because theyheld no dark thoughts in their minds they knew no fear, and because theyknew no fear the wild creatures knew none and the speech of each wasclear to the other. 

Each morning they went out on the battlements at dawn to see thesplendid sun rise slowly out of the purple sea. One of the very firstthings the child King Amor remembered in his life--and he remembered italways--was a dawning day when the Ancient One wakened him gently, andfolding him in his long gray robe carried him up the winding and narrowstone stairway, until at last they stepped forth on the top of the hugecastle which seemed to the little creature to be so high that it wasquite close to the wonderful sky itself. 

"The sun is going to rise and wake the world, " said the Ancient One. "Young King, watch the wonder of it. "

Amor lifted his little head and looked. He was only just old enough tobe beginning to understand things, but he loved the Ancient One and allhe 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 itscolor. The sky was changing too--it was growing paler and paler--next itgrew faintly brighter, so did the sea; then a slight flush crept overland and water and all the small floating clouds were rosy pink. KingAmor smiled because birds' voices were to be heard in the trees andbushes, and something golden bright was rising out of the edge of theocean, and sparkling light danced on the waves. It rose higher andhigher and grew so dazzling and wonderful that he threw out his littlehand with a shout of joy. The next moment he started back because thererose near him a loud whirr and beating of powerful wings as a great birdflew out of a crag near by and soared high into the radiant morningheavens. 

"It is the eagle who is our neighbor, " said the Ancient One. "He hasawakened and gone to give his greeting to the sun. "

And as the little King sat upright, enraptured, he saw that from thedazzling brightness at the edge of the world there leaped forth a ballof 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 werestories of the small grains lying hid in the dark earth waiting for thegolden heat of the sun to draw them forth into life until they coveredthe tilled fields with waving wheat to make bread for the world; theywere stories of the seeds of fair flowers warmed and ripened until theyburst into scented blossoms; they were stories of the roots of trees andthe rich sap drawn upward by the heat until great branches and thickleafage waved in the summer air; they were stories of men, women, andchildren walking with light step and glad because of the gold of thesun. 

"Every day it warms, every day it draws, every day it ripens and giveslife. And there are many who forget the wonder of it. Lift your headhigh as you walk, young King, and often look upward. Never forget thesun. "

At every dawning they rose and saw together the wonder of the day; andthe first time the sky was heavy with gray clouds and the sun did notleap upward from behind the edge of the world the Ancient One saidanother thing. 

"The burning gold is behind the lowering gray and purple. The clouds areheavy with soft rain. When they break they will drop it in showers orsplendid storms and the thirsty earth will drink it up. The grains willdrink it and the seed and the roots, and the world will be joyous andrich with fresh life; the springs will bubble up like crystal, and thebrooks will rush babbling through the green of the forest. The drinkingplaces for the cattle will be full and clear and men and women will feelrested and cool. Lift your head high when you walk, young King, andoften look upward. Never forget the clouds. "

So hearing these things every day King Amor learned the meaning of bothsun and cloud and loved and felt himself brother to both. 

The first time he remembered seeing a storm the Ancient One took him tothe battlements again, and together they watched the dark clouds pourdown their floods while their purple was riven by the dazzling lances ofthe lightning; and the thunder rolled and crashed and seemed to rendasunder things no human eye could see; and the wind roared round thecastle on the mountain crag and beat against its towers, and tossed thebranches of the hugest trees, and whirled the rain in sheets over theland, --and King Amor stood erect and strong like some little soldier, though he wondered where the small birds were and if the eagle were inhis nest. 

Through all the tumult the Ancient One stood still. He looked tallerthan ever in his long gray robe, and his strange eyes were deep as thesea. 

At last he said in a slow, calm voice: "This is the voice of the powermen know not. No man has yet quite understood--though it seems to speak. Harken to it. Let your soul stand silent. Listen, young King. Hold yourhead high as you walk and often look upward. Never forget the storm. "

So the King learned to love the storm and be one with it, knowing nofear. 

But perhaps--it might be because he had been laid on the scented mossand had without knowing it saluted them on the first night of his life--he felt nearest to, and loved most, his brothers the stars. 

Every fair night through the King's earliest years the Ancient Onecarried him to the battlements and let him fall asleep beneath theshining myriads. But first he would walk about bearing him in his arms, or sit with him in the splendid silence, sometimes relating wonders tohim in a low voice, sometimes uttering no word, only looking calmly intothe high vault above as if the stars spoke to him and told him ofperfect peace. 

"When a man looks long at them, " he said, "he grows calm and forgetssmall things. They answer his questions and show him that his earth isonly one of the million worlds. Hold your soul still and look upwardoften, and you will understand their speech. Never forget the stars. "

Part Two

So, as the child King grew day by day, the world seemed to grow fullerand fuller of wonders and beauties. There were the sun and the moon, thestorm and the stars, the straight falling lances of rain, the springingof the growing things, the flight of the eagle, the songs and nests ofsmall bird creatures, the changing seasons, and the work of the greatbrown earth giving its harvest and its fruits. 

"All these wonders in one world and you a man upon it, " said the AncientOne. "Hold high your head when you walk, young King, and often lookupward. Never forget one marvel among them all. "

He forgot nothing. He lived looking out on all things from great, clear, joyous eyes. Upon his mountain crag he never heard a paltry orunbeautiful word or knew of the existence of unfriendliness or basenessin thought. As soon as he was old enough to go out alone he roamed aboutthe great mountain and feared neither storm nor wild beasts. Shaggy-maned lions and their mates drew near and fawned on him as their kindhad fawned on young Adam in the Garden of Eden. There had never passedthrough his mind the thought that they were not his friends. 

He did not know that there were men who killed their wild brothers. Inthe huge courtyard of the castle he learned to ride and to perform greatfeats of strength. Because he had not learned to be afraid he neverfeared that he could not do a thing. He grew so strong and beautifulthat when he was ten years old he was as tall as a youth of sixteen, andwhen he was sixteen he was already like a young giant. This was becausehe had been brother to the storm and had lived close to the strength andsplendor of the stars. 

Only once, when he was a boy of twelve, a strange and painful thinghappened to him. From his kingdom in the plains below there had beensent to him a beautiful young horse which had been bred for him. Neverhad so magnificent an animal been born in the royal stable. When he wasbrought into the courtyard the boy King's eyes shone with joy. He spentthe greater part of the morning in exercising and leaping him overbarriers. The Ancient One in his tower chamber heard his shouts ofexultation and encouragement. At last the King went out to try him onthe winding mountain road. 

When he returned he went at once to the tower chamber to the AncientOne, who, when he raised his eyes from his great book, looked at himgravely. 

"Let us climb to the battlements, " the boy said. "We must talktogether. "

So they went, and when they stood looking out on the world below, thecurving turquoise sky above them, the eyes of the Ancient One were stillmore grave. 

"Tell me, young King. "

"Something strange has happened, " King Amor answered. "I have feltsomething I have not felt before. I was riding my horse around the fieldon the plateau and he saw something which he refused to pass. It was ayoung leopard watching us from a tree. My horse reared and snorted. Hewould not listen to me, but backed and wheeled around. I tried in vainto persuade him, and suddenly, when I saw I could not make him obey me, this strange new feeling rushed through all my body. I grew hot and knewmy face was scarlet, my heart beat faster and my blood seemed to boil inmy veins. I shouted out harsh, ugly sounds--I forgot that all things arebrothers--I lifted my hand and clenched it and struck my horse again andagain. I loved him no longer, I felt that he no longer loved me. I amhot and wearied and heavy from it still. I feel no more joy. Was it painI felt? I have never felt pain and do not know. Was it pain?"

"It was a worse thing, " answered the Ancient One. "It was anger. When aman is overcome by anger he has a poisoned fever. He loses his strength, he loses his power over himself and over others, he throws away time inwhich he might have gained the end he most desires. THERE IS NO TIME FORANGER IN THE WORLD. "

So King Amor learned the uselessness of anger, for they sat long uponthe battlements while the Ancient One told him how its poison worked inthe veins and weakened the strongest man until he was made a fool. Thatnight Amor lay under the sky looking at his myriad brothers, the stars, and drawing calm from them. 

"If you lie through the night upon the battlements and think only of thestillness and the stars you will forget your anger and its poison willdie away. If you put into your mind a beautiful thought it will take theplace of the evil one. There is no room for darkness in the mind of himwho thinks only of the stars. " This had been said to him by the AncientOne. 

Upon the plateau at the foot of the crag on which the castle stood therewere marvelous walled gardens. The sad young Queen of the first KingMordreth had planted them, and after her death they had been left to runwild. Since the baby King Amor had been brought to the mountain top theAncient One and his servitor had made them bloom again. As soon as hewas old enough to hold a small spade Amor had worked in the beds. Allthings grew for him as if his touch were a spell; birds and bees andbutterflies flocked round him as he labored. He knew what the beeshummed and where they flew to load themselves with honey; butterflieslighted upon his hands and taught him strange things. Birds told him oftheir travels, and brought him seeds from far countries which he plantedin his gardens and which bloomed into marvelous flowers. A swallow wholoved him very much and who had seen many wonderful lands once broughthim a seed from an emperor's secret garden which none but four of hisown slaves had ever seen. These slaves had been born in the garden andwould never leave it while they lived. 

King Amor planted the seed in a pleasaunce of its own. It grew into themost beautiful blue flower the world had ever known. It was of a blue sopure and exquisitely intense that it was rapture to look at it. Itsblossoms hung from a tall stem and in its first year it gave a thousandseeds. Each year Amor planted more flowers and each year they grewtaller and more wonderful and blossomed a longer time. When the summerwind blew it shook out clouds of delicate fragrance which sometimesfloated down the mountain until the wretched dwellers in King Mordreth'sland forgot their quarrels and misery and even lifted their heavy headsto inhale it and ask each other what was being done upon the mountain. Each year King Amor gathered the seeds and stored them in an unusedtower of his castle. 

Taller and stronger he grew and each day wiser and more beautiful. Eachplant, each weed, each four-footed thing, each wind, each star of heaventaught him its wonders and its wisdom. His eyes were so marvelous intheir straight-glanced splendor that when he looked at a man they seemedto read his soul and command its truth to answer him. He was so powerfulthat he could break an iron bar in two pieces with his hands. 

When he was twenty years old the Ancient One took him up on thebattlements, and giving him a strong glass told him to look down uponthe capital city on the plain and see what was being done there. 

"I see many people gathered in crowds, " Amor said, when he had lookedfor a few moments. "I see bright colors and waving pennants andtriumphal arches. It is as if some great ceremony were being preparedfor. "

"The people are making ready for your coronation, " said the Ancient One. "To-morrow you will be led in state down the mountain and acclaimedKing. It was to fit you to reign over your kingdom that I taught you toknow all the wonders of the world and have shown you that no thing isuseless but folly and dishonoring thought. That which you have learnedfrom your brothers here you go down the mountain to teach your brothersthere. You will see things which are not beautiful and those which areunclean, but hold high your head when you walk, young King, and neverforget the sun, the wind, and the stars. "

To himself as he looked on him the Ancient One said: "When he standsbefore them they will think he is a young god. "

The next morning a splendid procession wound its glittering way up themountain road to the castle. There were princes and nobles andchieftains. Rich colors glowed in their attire and gorgeous banners andpennants waved over them, while music from gold and silver trumpetsaccompanied them as they rode and their many followers marched behind. 

The Ancient One in his long robe of gray stood by King Amor on the broadstone terrace guarded by its crouching carved lions. 

"This is your King, O people!" he said. 

And when the people looked it was as he had said it would be. They drewback a little and gazed in fear, and many of the followers fell upontheir knees. They thought they saw a beautiful young giant and god. Buthe was only a splendid and powerful young man who had never known a darkthought and had lived near to his brothers the stars. His horse, adornedwith golden trappings, was brought and he was led down the mountainside, through the gates into the capital city of his kingdom. He desiredthat the Ancient One should ride by his side. 

What he saw as he rode to the place of coronation he had never seenbefore. Notwithstanding the embroidered silk and velvet hangingsdecorating the fronts of the rich people's houses, he caught glimpses offilthy side streets, squalid alleys, and tumble-down tenements. He sawforlorn little children scud away like rats into their holes as he drewnear, and wretched, vicious-looking men and women fighting with eachother for places in the crowd. Sharp, miserable faces peered roundcorners at him, and nobody smiled because every one hated or distrustedhis neighbor, and they dreaded and disliked the young King because allthe King Mordreths had been evil and selfish, and he was theirdescendant. 

When they saw that he was so tall and powerful and carried his handsomehead so high, often looking upward, they feared him still more; as theirown heads hung down they never saw anything but the dirt and dustbeneath their feet or the quarrels about them, so their minds were fullof fears and ugly thoughts, and they at once began to be afraid of himand suspect him of being proud. He could do twice as much evil as theother Kings, they said, since he was twice as strong and twice ashandsome. It was their nature to first think an evil thought of anythingor anybody and to be afraid of all things at the outset. 

The princes and nobles who rode in the procession tried to prevent KingAmor seeing the wretched-looking people and ill-kept streets. Theypointed out the palaces and decorations and beautiful ladies throwingflowers in his path from the balconies. He praised all the splendors andsaluted the balconies, looking up with such radiant and smiling eyesthat the ladies almost threw themselves after their flowers and criedout that never, never had there been crowned such a beautiful young Kingbefore. 

"Do not look at the rabble, your Majesty, " the Prime Minister said. "They are an evil, ill-tempered lot of worthless malcontents andthieves. "

"I would not look at them, " answered King Amor, "if I knew that I couldnot help them. There is no time to look at dark things if one cannotmake them brighter. I look at these because there is something to bedone. I do not yet know what. "

"There is such hatred in their eyes that they will only make you angry, Sire, " said a handsome young prince who rode near. 

"There is no time for anger, " said Amor, holding his crowned head high. "It is a worthless thing. "

After sunset there was a great banquet and after it a great ball, andthe courtiers and princes were delighted by the beauty and grace of thenew King. He was much brighter and more charming than any of the KingMordreths had been. His laugh was full of gaiety and the people whostood near him felt happier, though they did not know why. 

But when the ball was at its height he stepped into the center of theroom and spoke aloud to the splendid company. 

"I have seen the broad streets and the palaces and all that is beautifulin my capital, " he said. "Now I must go to the narrow streets and thedark ones. I must see the miserable people, the cripples, the wretchedones, the drunkards and the thieves. "

Every one clamored and protested. These things they had hidden from him;they said kings should not see them. 

"I will see them, " he said with a smile which was beautiful and strange. "I go now, on foot, and unattended except for my friend the Ancient One. Let the ball go on. "

He strode through the glittering throng with the gray-clad Ancient Oneat his side. He still wore his crown upon his head because he wished hispeople to know that their King had come to them. 

Through dark and loathsome places they went, through narrow streets andback alleys and courts, where people scurried away like rats as thegutter children had done in the daytime. King Amor could not have seenthem but that he had brought with him a bright lantern and held it up inthe air above his high head. The light shining upon his beautiful faceand his crown made him look more than ever like a young god and giant, and the people cowered terrified before him, asking each other what sucha King would do to wretches like themselves. But just a few very littlechildren smiled at him because he was so young and bright and splendid. No one in the black holes and corners could understand why a King shouldcome walking among them on the night of his coronation day. Most of themthought that the next morning he would order them all to be killed, andtheir houses burned, because he would only think of them as vermin. 

Once as he passed through a dark court a madman darted out in his pathshaking his fist. 

"We hate you!" he cried out. "We hate you!"

The dwellers in the court gasped with terror, wondering what wouldhappen. But the tall young King stood holding his lantern above his headand gazing at the madman with deep thought in his eyes. 

"There is no time for hatred in the world, " he said. "There is no time. "And then he passed on. 

The look of deep thought was in his face throughout the hours in whichhe strode on until he had seen all he had come to see. 

The next day he rode back up the mountain to his castle on the crag, andwhen the night fell he lay out upon the battlements under the sky as hehad done on so many nights. The soft wind blew about him as he looked upat the stars. 

"I do not know, my brothers, " he said to them. "Tell me. " And he laysilent until the great sweet stillness of the night seemed to fill hissoul, and when the stars began to fade he slept in rapturous peace. 

The people in his kingdom on the plain waited, wondering what he woulddo. During the next few days they quarreled and hated each other morethan ever, the rich ones because they all wanted to gain his favor, andeach was jealous of the other; the poor ones because they were afraid ofhim and each man feared that his neighbor would betray things he haddone in the past. 

Only two boys working together in a field, having stopped to wrangle andfight, one of them suddenly stood still remembering something, and saida strange thing in a strange voice:

"There is no time for anger. There is no time. " And as he fell to workagain his companion did the same, and when they had finished their taskof weeding they talked about the thing and remembered that when they hadquarreled the day before they had not finished their task at all, andhad not been paid, and had gone home sore from the blows they had giveneach other, and had had no supper. 

"No, there is no time, " they decided. 

At the beginning of the following week there were rumors that a strangelaw had been made--the strangest ever known in the world. It wassomething about a Blue Flower. What had flowers to do with laws, or whathad laws to do with flowers? People quarreled about what the meaning ofsuch a law might be. Those who thought first of evil things and fearsbegan to say that in the rich people's gardens was to be planted a BlueFlower whose perfume would poison all the poor. 

The only ones who did not quarrel were the two boys and their friendswho had already begun to make a sort of password of "There is no timefor anger. " One of them who was clever added a new idea to the saying. 

"There is no time for fear!" he cried out in the field. "Let us go onwith our work. " And they finished their task early and played games. 

At last one morning it was made known that the new King was to give afeast in the open air to all the people. It was to be on the plainoutside the city, and he himself was going to proclaim to them the Lawof the Blue Flower. 

"Now we shall know the worst, " growled and shivered the Afraid Ones asthey shuffled their way to the plain, and the boys who used the passwordheard them. 

"There is no time to think of the worst!" shouted the clever one at thetop of his voice. "There is no time. We shall be late for the feast. "

And a number of people actually turned to listen because there was ahigh, strong, gay sound in his voice such as had never been heard inKing Mordreth's Land before. 

The plain was covered with thick green grass, and beautiful spreadingtrees grew on it. There was a richly draped platform for King Amor'sgold and ivory chair, but when the people gathered about he stood upbefore them, a beautiful young giant with eyes like fixed stars and headheld high. And he read his law in a voice which, wonderful to relate, was heard by every man, woman, and child--even by the little cripplecrouching alone in the grass on the very outskirts of the crowd and notexpecting to hear or see anything. 

This is what he read:

"In my pleasaunce on the mountain top there grows a Blue Flower. One ofmy brothers, the birds, brought me its seed from an Emperor's hiddengarden. It is as beautiful as the sky at dawn. It has a strange power. It dispels evil fortune and the dark thoughts which bring it. There isno time for dark thoughts--there is no time for evil. Listen to my Law. Tomorrow seeds will be given to every man, woman, and child in mykingdom--even to the newborn. Every man, woman, and child--even thenewborn--is commanded by the law to plant and feed and watch over theBlue Flower. It is the work of each to make it grow. The mother of thenewborn can hold its little hand and make it drop the seeds into theearth. As the child grows she must show it the green shoots when theypierce the brown soil. She must babble to it of its Blue Flower. By thetime it is pleased by color it will love the blossoms, and the spell ofhappiness and good fortune will begin to work for it. It is not oneperson here and there who must plant the flower, but each and every one. To those who have not land about them, all the land is free. You mayplant by the roadside, in a cranny of a wall, in an old box or glass ortub, in any bare space in any man's field or garden. But each must planthis seeds and watch over and feed them. Next year when the Blue Flowerblossoms I shall ride through my kingdom and bestow my rewards. This ismy Law. "

"What will befall if some of us do not make them grow?" groaned some ofthe Afraid Ones. 

"There is no time to think of that!" shouted the boy who was clever. "Plant them!"

When the Prime Minister and his followers told the King that larger andstronger prisons must be built for the many criminals, and that heaviertaxes must be laid upon the people to rescue the country from poverty, his answer to them was: "Wait until the blooming of the Blue Flower. "

In a short time every one was working in the open air, digging in thesoil--tiny children as well as men and women. Drunkards and thieves andidlers who had never worked before came out of their dark holes andcorners into the light of the sun. It was not a hard thing to plant afew flower seeds, and because the King Amor looked so much more powerfulthan other men, and had eyes so wonderful and commanding, they did notknow what punishment he would invent for them and were afraid to disobeyhim. But somehow, after they had worked in the sweet-scented earth for awhile and had seen others working, the light of the sun and thefreshness of the air made them feel in better humor; the wind blew awaytheir evil fancies and their headaches, and because there was so muchtalk and wondering about the magic of the Blue Flower they becameinterested, and wanted to see what it would do for them when itblossomed. Scarcely any of them had ever tried to make a flower growbefore and they gradually thought of it a great deal. There was lessquarreling because conversation with neighbors all about a Blue Flowergave no reason for hard words. The worst and idlest were curious aboutit and every one tried experiments of his own. The children weredelighted and actually grew happy and rosy over their digging andwatering and care-taking. Gradually all sorts of curious thingshappened. People who were growing Blue Flowers began to keep the groundaround about them in order. They did not like to see bits of paper andrubbish lying about, so they cleared them away. One quite new thingwhich occurred was that sometimes people even helped each other alittle. Cripples and those who were weak actually found that there werestronger ones who would do things for them when their backs ached, andit was hard to carry water or dig up weeds. No one in King Mordreth'sLand had ever helped another before. 

The boy who was clever did more than all the rest. He gathered togetherall the children he could and formed them into a band using thepasswords. In time it became quite like a little army. They calledthemselves The Band of the Blue Flower, and each boy and girl was boundto remember the passwords and apply them to all they did. So, often, when a number of people were together and things began to go wrong, aclear young voice would cry out somewhere like a silver battle cry:

"There is no time for anger!" or "There is no time for hate!" or "Thereis no time to fret! There is no time. "

Among the great and rich people also singular things came to pass. Thosewho had wasted their days loitering or rioting were obliged to get up inthe morning to work in their gardens, and finding that exercise andfresh air improved their health and spirits they began to like it. Courtladies found it good for their complexions and tempers; busy merchantsdiscovered that it made their heads clearer; ambitious students foundthat after an hour spent evening and morning over their Blue Flower bedsthey could study twice as long without fatigue. The children of theprinces and nobles became so full of work and talk of their soil andtheir seeds that they quite forgot to squabble and be jealous of eachother's importance at Court. Never in one story could it be told howmany unusual, interesting, and wonderful things occurred in the oncegloomy King Mordreth's Land just because every person in it, rich andpoor, old and young, good and bad, had to plant and care for and liveevery day of life with a Blue Flower. Oh! the corners and crannies andqueer places it was planted in; and oh! the thrill of excitementeverywhere when the first tender green shoots thrust their way throughthe earth! And the wave of excitement which passed over the whole landwhen the first buds showed themselves. By that time every one was sointerested that even the Afraid Ones had forgotten to ask each otherwhat King Amor would do to them if they had no Blue Flower. Somehow, people had gained courage and they knew the Blue Flower would grow--andthey knew there was no time to stop working while they worried and said"Suppose it didn't. " There was no time. 

Sometimes the young King was on the mountain top with the wind and theeagle and the stars, and sometimes he was in his palace in the city, buthe was always working and thinking for his people. He was not seen bythe people, however, until a splendid summer day came when it wasproclaimed by heralds in the streets that he would begin his journeythrough the land by riding through the capital city to see theblossoming of the Blue Flowers, and there would be a feast once moreupon the plain. 

It was a wonderful day, the air was full of golden light and the sky ofsuch a blueness as never had been seen before. Out of the palace gateshe rode and he wore his crown, and his eyes were more brilliant than thejewels in it, and his smile was more radiant than a sunrise as he lookedabout him, for every breath he drew in was fragrant, every ugly placewas hidden, and every squalid corner filled with beauty, for it seemedas if the whole world were waving with Blue Flowers. Tumble-down housesand fences were covered with them because some of them climbed likevines; neglected fields and gardens had been made neat so that theywould grow; rubbish and dirt had been cleaned away to make room forclumps and patches of them. You could not grow the Blue Flower amongdirt and disorder any more than you could grow it while you werespending your time in drinking and quarreling. By the road sides, incourts, in windows, in cracks, in walls, in broken places in roofs, ingreat people's gardens, on the window sills, or about the doorways ofpoor people's hovels--fair and fragrant and waving, grew the BlueFlower. Where it waved there was no room for dirt and rubbish, andsuddenly even the dullest people began to see that the face of the wholeland was changed as if by some strange magic, and the whole populationseemed changed with it. Everybody looked fresher and more cheerful, people had actually learned to smile and keep themselves clean, andthere was not one who was not healthier. They had, in fact, beennoticing this for some time, and they had said to each other that thepower of the Blue Flower, of which the King had spoken, was beginning towork. The children had grown gay and rosy, and the boy who was cleverand all his companions had found time to earn themselves new clothes, because they had never forgotten their passwords. All the farmers wantedthem to work in their fields because they said there was no time toidle, no time to fight, no time to play evil tricks. 

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

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

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

King Amor drew up his white horse and looked at him and looked at hisbare 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 ricketygate and threw himself down upon the earth before the King's whitehorse, sobbing hopelessly and heart-brokenly. 

"Oh King!" he cried. "I am only a cripple, and small, and I can easilybe killed. I have no flowers at all. When I opened my package of seeds Iwas so glad that I forgot the wind was blowing, and suddenly a greatgust carried them all away forever and I had not even one left. I wasafraid 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 gardenneat and kept away the weeds. And sometimes I asked other people to letme dig a little for them. And always when I went out I picked up theugly things I saw lying about--the bits of paper and rubbish--and I dugholes for them in the earth. But I have broken your Law. "

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

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

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

"But the earth is full of magic, " Amor said to the Ancient One, afterthe feast on the plain was over. "Most men know nothing of it and socomes misery. The first law of the earth's magic is this one. If youfill your mind with a beautiful thought there will be no room in it foran ugly one. This I learned from you and from my brothers the stars. SoI gave my people the Blue Flower to think of and work for. It led themto 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 Ican help them, and all will be well. They shall be wise and joyous andknow good fortune. "

The little cripple lived near the sun and the stars in the castle on themountain crag until he grew strong and straight. Then he was the King'schief 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 ofKing Mordreth's Land was forgotten, because it was known throughout allthe world as The Land of the Blue Flower.