Christmas Lilies

Southland Times, Issue 22770, 21 December 1935, Page 22

Christmas Lilies

Years ago there was a beautiful garden with flowers of every kind—roses, lilies, pansies—and always tending them was an old, old fairy named Mother Nature. In this garden all was peace and beauty until one day the North wind murmured a story to the flowers, telling them that every country had a queen of flowers. England had the rose, New Zealand the rata, Japan the chrysanthemum. “Oh!” he laughed, “you are behind the times.” Soon Mother Nature saw that something was wrong. Her loved flowers began to droop, and she sent her messenger Dewdrop, to find out what was the trouble. When she found out what the wind had told the flowers, she wisely decided to let them choose a queen of flowers for themselves, and issued a notice that on Christmas Day a queen should be elected. All the birds and butterflies received a notice to come to the Christmas dinner, and Mother Nature was kept busy getting new frocks for her flowers and honey and other good things for the guests. At last Christmas Day arrived. Rustle! Chatter! Bustle! The guests soon began to take their places. The birds on one side sat on the low branches of the trees, the insects sat on small seats of moss, while the judges, twelve different species of birds, sat on a raised throne. They said it was a hard task to pick out a queen among so many beautiful flowers. At last they decided, and the eagle, king of the birds, spoke their verdict. “My friends, I am going to tell you we have picked a queen not for beauty alone, but for perfume and gracefulness, and this queen is the lily, and henceforth she shall be called the Christmas Lily.” “Hurrah! Queen Lily!” shouted all as the lily in her beautiful white wax dress and golden stamens, went up to claim her crown of sunbeams. From that day the Christmas Lily has been Queen of Fairyland and on Christmas Day, if you are lucky, you may get a glimpse of her ruling her kingdom of flowers in the court of Fairyland, assisted by Mother Nature. —Cousin Pat Henderson (11), Waikana.