termined to find it.

"Surely somewhere in the kingdom there must be a plant left if it grew so
common in the days of my great-great-grandfather," said the King.

Then calling the heralds to him he said:

"Ride forth and search. Go East, and West, and North, and South, and say
to my people, 'Search for the White Flower of Happiness, and when you have
found it, bring it to me that I may raise more seeds so that all may have
a chance to own it. 'Tis a little flower, white as the driven snow, with
petals that are heart-shaped around a heart of gold.'"

Eagerly the people, both rich and poor, went to work, for they knew of the
wondrous beauty of the flower and wished it for their own.

Now there were two people who were very sure they would be first to find
the flower. One was a rich woman who loved beautiful things. Her home was
the largest of any on the finest street in the royal city. She had many
and large gardens, cared for by the best gardeners to be found. Yet in the
summer-time, when they were glowing with hundreds of flowers, few there
were who could enjoy them. A high hedge surrounded them all and only her
friends were permitted to go through the iron entrance gate.

This wealthy woman said to herself: "I will find the flower and it will be
easy to keep it secret from all others if I have it here behind the hedge.
Then I shall be sure of happiness in the future."

So all of her gardeners were set to work to search for the White Flower of
Happiness. Wherever they found a plant of rare beauty, they bought it
hoping that it might be the plant she sought. Seeds of all kinds also were
planted. And in the blossoming time there were flowers in the gardens by
the thousands--but behind that great wall there was no flower that was
white as the driven snow, with heart-shaped petals surrounding a heart of
gold.

There was also a man in the kingdom who thought he could surely find the
flower. He was a business man.

"If I could find it," he said, "I would grow more plants and sell them to
the people at a great profit. Then I should quickly grow rich and there
would be no need for me to work."

So he set his office force all to work to write letters to the gardeners
and seed-growers of the world. They described the little flower and
offered large sums for one single plant. But he, too, failed in his
search. It was not to be found.

Down in the heart of the poorer section of the royal city there lived a
little old la