In a garden long ago stood a lovely rose bush, thick with roses. The sun and dew and the rose bush, all loved the roses. Each of them claimed that the roses were their children. The loved the roses very much.
The sun said its warmth made the roses grow. The dew said it gave a drink every morning to the roses to nourish them. The rose bush stated very simply that they grew on the bush, so they were her children. However, all of them wondered which of the roses on the bush would be the luckiest.
One day, a sad woman plucked a rose to lay it on the grave of her little daughter who had died. The rose thought it was the luckiest flower on the bush because it had been selected as a very special gift.
Another woman took a rose that was in full bloom and the petals were ready to fall out. She dried the petals and put it in a bowl along with other dried flowers. It was fragrant and thought it was the luckiest one.
Two young men came to the garden. One was a painter and another was a poet. So, one young man painted a picture of a rose which would now be visible to people for years to come. The other wrote a poem about a rose. This rose decided it was the luckiest as the painting would never fade.
Each rose thought it was the luckiest one on the bush. Then along came a young man who wanted to take it for a ballerina who was dancing at the theatre that night. So, he plucked one and put it in his bouquet. At the end of her performance, when everyone showered her with flowers and petals, he too threw the bouquet on to the stage.
Some of the rose petals broke and the flower lay there discarded. When a stagehand was clearing the place, he found the rose. He took it for his old grandmother who was ill and put it in a vase beside her bed.
“Thank you, child,” she said, “Such a beautiful rose! It really cheers me up!”
And the rose thought it was the luckiest rose from the rose bush. The wind had wandered far and wide and seen all the roses. ‘I can tell the story of all the roses,’ thought the wind, ‘Perhaps I am the luckiest of all!’ Now you can decide for yourself which was the luckiest rose!
