Some children were at play in theirplayground one daywhen a herald rode through
the townblowing a trumpetand crying aloud,
“the king, the kingpasses by this road today, make ready forthe king,”
the children stopped their play andlooked at one another
“Did you hear that?” they said, “the king iscoming? he may look over the wall and see ourplayground; who knows!! We must put it in order”.
The playground was sadly dirty, and inthe corners were scraps of paperand broken
toys for thesewere careless children, but nowone brought a hoe and another a rake
and a third ran to fetch the wheelbarrowfrom behind the garden gate; they labored
hard till at length,all was clean and tidy,
“Now it is clean,” they said, “but we mustmake it pretty too,for kings are used to finding things; maybehe would not noticemere cleanness, for he may have it allthe time,”
then one brought sweet rushes andstrewed them on the ground; others made
garlands of oak leaves andpine tasselsand hung them on the walls, and thelittlest
onepulled marigold buds and threw themall about the playground
“to look likegold,” he said.
When all was done, the playgroundwas sobeautiful that the children stood
andlooked at itand clapped their hands with pleasure,
“Let us keep it always like this.” said thelittlest one,and the others cried, “yes, yes,that is what we will do.”
They waited all day for the coming of the king,but he never came, only toward sunset
a man with travel-worn clothes and akind, tired face passed along the road
and stopped to look over the wall
“What apleasant place!”said the man “may I come in and rest, dear children?”
the children brought him in gladlyand set him on the seat that they had made out
of anold cask, they had covered it with theold red cloakto make it look like a throne,
and itmade a very good one,
“it is our playground,” they said. “We madeit pretty for the king, but he did not come,and now we mean to keep it so forourselves,”
“that is good,” said the man,
“because we think pretty and clean isnicer than uglyand dirty,” said another,
“that is better,”said the man,
“And for tired people torest in,”said the littlest one,
“that isbest of all,” said the man.
He sat and rested and looked at thechildrenwith such kind eyes that they came
about himand told him all they knewabout the five puppies in the barn
andthe thrush’s nest withfour blue eggs, and the shore where thegold shells grew,
and the man nodded and understood allabout it by and by. He asked for a cup of
water,and they brought it to him in the bestcupwith the gold sprigs on it;
then he thanked the children and roseand went on his way, but before he went,he laid
his hand on their heads for amoment,and the touch went warm to their hearts
the children stood by the wall andwatched the manas he went slowly along the sun
wassetting,and the light fell in long slanting raysacross the road,
“he looks so tired,” said one of thechildren,
“but he was so kind,” said another
“See!” said the littlest one, “how the sun shines on his hair; it looks like a crown of gold,”
I am EHAB GOUBRAN, blogger, and influencer, discovered that my true passion is to share with people whatever I knew and experienced by reading- which I adore by the way - or by experiences. my goal is to help others to improve their lifestyle by increasing their knowledge and passion. -"Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow."- Anthony J. D'Angelo