Growing For A King

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          An old king had no children, so he held a competition to find the next leader.

          He decreed that every child who wanted to try would be given a seed. They had to go home and nurture the seed for one year. At the end of the year, the grower of the best plant would be the new leader.

          Heng entered the contest and took a seed home and put the seed in the best soil, watered it carefully, and gave it just the right amount of sun.

By the end of the first month, other children in the town had tiny sprouts, but Heng did not. By the end of the third month, all of the other children had little, bushy plants, but still, Heng had nothing.

          The other children made fun of Heng, telling her she could never be the leader because she couldn’t even grow a tiny plant.

          Heng swapped the soil and the pot. She tried everything she could think of, but at the end of the year, she still had nothing.

          The last day of the contest arrived, and all of the children took their plants to the palace, except Heng. She sat at home and cried, but her parents said she should be proud of her hard work and took her along to the judging.

          The king walked up and down, judging the beautiful, luscious plants; some of them even had fruit. Then he arrived at Heng.

          “Where is your plant?” asked the king.

           Through her tears, Heng said, “I worked very hard. I gave the seed my best soil, watered it every day, put it in just the right amount of sun, and brought it in from the cold. But nothing I did could make the seed grow.”

           “That’s right,” said the king. “I gave everyone seeds that had been boiled and dried. None of them could grow into plants”.

           “You are the only honest child who was strong enough to admit your seed wouldn’t grow, the king continued. “That makes you our new leader.”