In the midst of a wide desert that was under the power of a very wicked prince, was a tiny plot of ground belonging to another owner, a great king who lived far away. In point of fact, the whole desert was really his, but at this time the only part over which he asserted his rights, was that of which we are speaking. Although this plot of ground was so small, and in the midst of an enemy's country, it was an object of the greatest interest to the king.
I cannot tell you all the trouble he took with it. The soil was now utterly barren, and produced nothing but crops of weeds, though there was a tradition that a long time ago it once had been very good. For thousands of years the king had sent his best gardeners with orders to fence it, dig it, and use every effort to make it fertile. They did what they could, but all in vain. Whenever the king passed that way, expecting to see some result for the labor that had been expended on it, he found nothing, except a most luxuriant crop of weeds, of which the land, desert sand as it was, always produced a great abundance. We can well understand how rejoiced the wicked prince was when he saw the weeds coming up; for they grew and throve, although the soil was not only excessively poor, consisting of nothing but the common yellow sand of the desert, but also very thin, with nothing beneath but the solid rook. At length even the king himself said he had done all he could for it, and that in its present state it was utterly worthless.
Just at this time, however, it happened that some new seed had discovered of wonderful growing properties, which, if properly managed, would produce fine trees.
Even this seed, however, required better soil than that in the little desert plot; so as the king was determined to give it a fair trial, at an immense expense he sent a body of men to the spot, with orders thoroughly to break up the rock that lay underneath. Being fully supplied with suitable tools, they set to work with a good will, and by means of blasting and hammering, they succeeded in breaking the rock into small pieces, and this, when mixed with the sandy ground above, formed a sufficient soil for the seed to grow in.
The plot having now been prepared, the king sent a sower with a basketful of the precious seed. As he sowed it broadcast, some fell on the desert near, some fell on pieces of the rock, some amongst the tall thorns that were still growing near the edge of the plot, while some fell on the prepared soil.
The history of the first three is quickly told. That which fell on the hard sand of the desert was soon picked tip by troops of hungry birds. Some of the seeds which fell into crevices on the rocks actually managed to spring up for a little while, but having no real soil to grow in, were soon scorched by the hot sun of the desert. Those which fell into the thorns also sprang up, and might have proved strong and vigorous plants had it not been for these tall weeds on every side, which, shutting out every breath of air and sunshine, choked the good seed, so that it too withered away. Thus three-fourths of it came to nothing; and greatly was the prince delighted, when a few days after he came to look at the plot he so greatly coveted for his own, to find that again apparently all the king's efforts had been thrown away, and that no result had come of all the sowing. He was much pleased as he noticed the footprints of the birds around, the withered stalks lying on the bare sun-burnt rock, and the tall thorns still flourishing as if they could grow anywhere. He carefully surveyed the good ground, but even his keen eye could not see where one tiny seed was just hiding its head beneath a little piece of earth, waiting for him to go, before it pushed itself up up into the air and sunshine.