332W: Wise King Shows We See That Which Is Sought

I am looking for a Children’s book, from the 70’s or 80’s. It does have pictures. It may be a Golden book, but that is just a stretch of my memory.

The book is about a Kingdom in strife. Lords and Ladies are backstabbers and no one is happy. The King is fed up with it

The King comes up with a plan: He summons a page. He tells the page he is concerned about the state of the kingdom. He instructs the page to go out (on his horse) into the kingdom and find all that wrong. Find that which has sharp thorns, plants that are poisonous and so forth.  Collect as much as he can (for show & tell) and bring it back in a week.

When the 1st page has left the castle grounds he summons a 2nd page. He tells the page he is concerned about the state of the kingdom.  He instructs the page to ride forth into the kingdom and find all that is beautiful. Collect as much as he can (for show & tell) and bring it back in a week.

The first page comes back. He is cut by thorns and has rashes from the poisonous plants. The King asks: “What is the state of the Kingdom?” The page replies that the kingdom is in terrible shape. It is covered with ugliness and poison plants everywhere he searched.

Shortly thereafter the second page returns. The King asks: “What is the state of the Kingdom?” The second page replies that “the Kingdom is covered with nothing but beauty”. He has the flowers with him to show it.

The King somehow make the point to those in the court that we see that which we seek; not only in nature but in each other. Of course that changed everything and from then on (as I recall) the Lords and Ladies interacted respectfully with each other, seeking to see the best in those around them. Great story. Applicable to today. Hope you can help.

2 thoughts on “332W: Wise King Shows We See That Which Is Sought

  1. Gretchen

    This sounds just like a book I saw at Goodwill a few weeks back! The one I saw was called “The Spyglass: A Book about Faith” by Richard Paul Evans. It’s from his Virtues Collection.
    But I could be wrong. I think this story had more to do with a wise man using a spyglass to teach the king to see the kingdom how he wants it to be, and then it can become that way. It might be worth taking a look just in case.

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