A heart’s-ease

By Joyce Baker

A story is told of a king who went into his garden one morning,and found everything withered（凋謝）and dying.He asked the oak（橡樹）that stood near the gate what the trouble was.

He found it was sick of life and determined to die because it was not tall and beautiful like the pine.The pine was all out of heart because it could not bear grapes like the vine.The vine was going to throw its life away because it could not stand erect and have as fine fruit as the peach tree.The geranium （天竺葵）was fretting because it was not tall and fragrant like the lilac and so on all through the garden.

Coming to a heart’s-ease,he found its bright face lifted as cheery as ever.

“Hello,heart’s-ease,I’m glad,within all this discouragement,to find one brave little flower.You do not seem to lose heart.”

“No,have nothing I can be proud of,but I thought that if you wanted an oak，a pine，a peach tree， or a vine，a geranium， a lilac,you would have planted one;but as I knew you wanted a heart’s-ease,I am determined to be the best little heart’s-ease that I can.

一個(gè)國(guó)王清晨走進(jìn)花園，發(fā)現(xiàn)所有的草木都已經(jīng)枯萎，奄奄一息了。于是，他問(wèn)門邊的橡樹究竟發(fā)生了什么事。

原來(lái)是它消極厭世、一心求死，因?yàn)橄饦溆X(jué)得自己不如松樹般高大、秀麗。而松樹為自己不如葡萄藤那般結(jié)滿豐碩的果實(shí)而沮喪。葡萄藤則為自己無(wú)法直立，并且無(wú)法像桃樹那樣結(jié)出上好的果實(shí)而想結(jié)束生命。天竺葵也焦躁不安，因?yàn)樗X(jué)得自己不如紫丁香那樣修長(zhǎng)、芳香……于是，整個(gè)花園都了無(wú)生氣。

國(guó)王走到一株安心草面前，發(fā)現(xiàn)它仍然神采奕奕，如從前般歡樂(lè)。

“你好，安心草，我感到非常高興，所有的草木都對(duì)自己失去了信心，只有你能勇敢地生活，沒(méi)有絲毫氣餒。”

“雖然我并沒(méi)有什么值得驕傲的東西，但我想，如果你想要一棵橡樹、松樹、桃樹，或葡萄，或天竺葵、丁香，你就會(huì)去種它們，而因?yàn)槲抑滥阆胍恢臧残牟荩晕覜Q心盡我所能做一株最好的安心草。