Read the Story on The Proud Rose with Illustrations
Once upon a time, there lived a proud rose that was incredibly proud of her beautiful looks. The only disappointment it had was that it grew beside an ugly cactus.
Every next day, the rose would be ready with an insult that it would pour upon the poor cactus for his looks, and the cactus would remain quiet. No matter how hard every other plant in the garden tried to make, the rose saw some senses, but she was too swayed by her good looks.
One fine day, a pine tree near the blossomed rose said that it wished it was such a beautiful flower and hoped it could also be so lovely one fine day. Another tree said to the pine that there was no need to be sad as we did not have everything. Hearing the conversation, the rose replied to the trees and said that it seemed like she was the most beautiful flower in this forest.
Sunflower raised its yellow head and asked, “why do you say that, in this forest, there are many beautiful flowers, and you are just one of them.” The red rose replied that it saw everyone looking at him and admiring her. The next moment red rose added her cunning wit by humiliating the cactus beside it and called it ugly and full of thorns. The tree quickly replied that this was a shameful talk by the rose as no one could decide what beauty was, and the rose itself had so many thorns.
As the days passed, the rose would look at the cactus and say insulting things. The cactus never got upset and even advised the rose that God did not create any form of life without a purpose.
Spring passed, and the weather became hot. Life became severe in the forest as there was no rain for very long. The red rose became wilt.
One day the red rose saw a sparrow stick its beak into the cactus and fly away. The rose was amazed by this and asked the pine tree what the birds were doing? The pine tree replied that the birds were getting water from the cactus, which was hurting the cactus by the holes they made inside it, but it could not see the bird suffer, and thus, it was helping them.
The red rose felt too ashamed to ask the cactus for water. But finally, it did ask for help, and the cactus kindly agreed. The birds filled their beaks with water and watered the roses' roots.