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Once upon a time there was a little boy who was not very good.
He was not good to his mother.
He was not good to his sisters.
He would not do anything for them.
One day his mother said to the little boy,“Please come and help me.
We must all work in the garden today.”
The little boy said, “I do not want to help you. Please leave me alone.”
His mother said, “You should help me. I like to help you.”
But the boy cried, “I will not help you!
I do not need your help.
I do not want anyone to help me.”
The wind heard what the little boy said to his mother.
Away it went and told what it had heard.
The wind told it to the trees and to the brook and to the people in the town.
One day the little boy left his home, and started off all alone.
He walked and walked a long way.
The day was warm, and after a while the boy grew very tired.
He lay down to rest on the grass under a big tree.
“It is cool here in the shade,” he said.
But the tree said, “Go away. You do not need my help to make you cool.”
The grass said, “Get up! Get up! You do not need my help to rest.”
The boy got up from the grass before he had rested.
He was very tired, but he started on his way again.
Soon he wanted a drink of water.
“I will get a nice, cool drink at the brook,”he said.
So he went down to the brook and tried to get a drink.
But the brook said to him, “No, no! little boy.
You do not need my help.
Do not try to get me to help you.
You said that you did not need help from anyone.”
The brook ran along on its way and would not give the little boy a drink.
He started on his way again.
The boy walked on and on.
In the evening he came to a town.
He met a man, and asked him for something to eat.
“Oh, no,” said the man. “You are the boy who does not need any help.
I will not give you anything to eat.”
The tired little boy started off again.
Soon the boy came to a pretty house.
He saw a woman on the porch, and he asked her if he might sleep in her house.
But the woman would not let the boy come in.
She said, “You do not need my help.
You do not need help from anyone.
I will not give you a bed.”
The boy was so tired that he lay down on the hard ground to sleep.
When he waked in the morning he was cold and hungry.
“I want my breakfast,” said the boy.
“I need my mother.
I need help. I want people to help me.
At home they all helped me very often.
I will go home and help my mother and sisters.”
When the wind heard what the boy said,it went away very fast.
It went to the brook and to the trees and to the grass.
It told them that the boy wanted help.
Then the wind went to tell all the people that the boy wanted help.
Soon the little boy started home.
On the way he met a man who gave him some breakfast.
When he came to the brook, it said, “Good morning, little boy.
You may have a nice, cool drink.”
The tree gave him shade, and the grass gave him a place to rest.
The happy boy thanked them all.
Then he ran home to his mother just as fast as he could go.
When the boy got home, his mother was standing on the porch, looking for him.
He ran to his mother and said, “Mother, I do need help.
Most of all I need your help.
I will be a good boy and help you and my sisters.
Shall we work in the garden today ?”
—— Anne Elizabeth Allen