The Garden (Part 2)

The ruffly roses caught sight of the King's scissors shining in His belt, and one of them gave a little shriek.  The tall sunflowers said, "We don't know for sure if He is safe.  It would be unwise for us all to go to Him--let us send someone to go to Him for us!"  The sturdy daffodils said, "Yes!  The sunflowers have a good idea!  We should send the lilies--they seem to have a way with the King.  They are the ones who should go to Him for the rest of us."  The big, bright lilies looked at each other with confused faces.  This did not seem like a good idea.  But all the other flowers hooted and hollered and pushed them along until they crept slowly up to the King as He knelt in the garden.

"King," said the big, bright lilies, "we--we--we think we must ask You for...um...we want You to give us enough water and sunshine for all the flowers, and we will take it to them...uh...instead of You."  The King wrinkled His face a little, and said, "Why will the other flowers not come to Me?  Only I know what they need.  Why aren't they coming to Me?"  The big, bright lilies felt sad for the King, but they said, "Well, um, King...they are afraid, and they say that we have a...a 'way with You'...so they want us to come to You in their place."  The King bowed His head very low.  He looked so sad.  The lilies wanted to cheer Him up, so they cried, "We will try to do a very good job!  We will work very hard!  See, You can put the sunshine and the water into our petals, and we will carry it to the others!"  The King sadly shook His head a little, as though He wanted to say that this was not a good idea, but He carefully placed the sunshine into the petals of one lily, and the water into the petals of another lily.  The sunshine and the water were so, so heavy.  The lilies stumbled back to the other flowers and tried to feed them.  It was hard, and some flowers got too much, and some flowers got too little.  The lilies, you see, didn't know how much to give to the other flowers, and they didn't even know how much to give to themselves.

Then the lilies remembered the scissors, and they knew that the roses would need a good clipping.  They returned to the King and timidly asked for His scissors.  The King looked even more sad as He gave the lilies His scissors, and the lilies carried them back to the roses.  The lilies tried to clip some of the dead shoots, but they were clumsy and didn't know which shoots really needed to be clipped.  The roses got angry and snatched the scissors away from the lilies, saying, "You are doing a bad job!  Let us clip our own dead branches!"

The flowers lived this way for a long time.  They would send the lilies to the King to ask for water and sunshine, and the lilies carried them back to the other flowers.  The lilies tried very hard to give the other flowers the right amount, but they could only guess, so some flowers got too much and some flowers got too little.  After a while, the tall sunflowers didn't look so tall, because they did not get enough sunshine.   Their heads drooped low and their stalks sometimes broke.  The sturdy daffodils were not so sturdy, because they did not get enough water.  Their petals grew dull and brittle.  The big, bright lilies were not so big and bright, because they were so tired from carrying all the water and sunshine.  Their beautiful blooms dragged the ground and lost all their pretty colors.  The tiny violets were crumpled and bedraggled because they got too much water, and the other flowers usually forgot all about them.  The roses were the worst.  Instead of being ruffly and beautiful, they were covered in dead branches and empty stubs.  You see, the roses didn't know which branches to clip.  Sometimes they left the dead branches, and sometimes they clipped the live branches.  Eventually the roses stopped blooming altogether.

When the flowers looked at themselves and saw how sick they were, they blamed the lilies.  "You lilies have done a bad job!  You should not bring us water and sunshine any more!"  Some of the lilies felt sad and tired, and they did not reply.  Some of the lilies became angry and said, "Now you listen to us!  The King has put us in charge, and you must obey everything we say!  The reason you are sick is that you do not listen well!  We lilies will discuss the matter and we will tell you our decision tomorrow morning."  With that, the lilies went away to discuss the matter.

That night, the lilies decided that they should find better water and sunshine outside the garden.  They made arrangements to talk with the nasty rodents and birds and bugs about finding better water and sunshine.  The nasty rodents and birds and bugs were very pleased with this, for there is nothing they liked better than a good, ripe flower.