Five Peas from One Pod

There were five peas in one pod. They were green and the pod was green, and so they believed the whole world was green. And that was quite natural! The pod grew and the peas grew. They fitted themselves to where they were and sat in a row. The sun shone outside and warmed the pod, and the rain made it clear and transparent. By day it was mild and bright, by night it was dark, just as it should be. The longer the peas sat there, the bigger they grew and the more thoughtful they became, for they felt there must be something for them to do.

"Are we to sit here for ever?" said one. "I hope we won't get hard from sitting so long. It seems to me there's something outside. I'm sure of it." Weeks went by. The peas turned yellow and the pod turned yellow. "The whole world is turning yellow," they said, and they had a right to say so.

Suddenly they felt the pod being pulled. It was torn off by a human hand and put into a jacket pocket with other pods. "Now we'll soon be opened," they said, and they waited for it. "I should like to know which of us will go farthest," said the smallest pea. "Well, that will soon be seen." "What will be, will be," said the biggest.

"Crack!" the pod burst open, and all five peas rolled out into the bright sunshine. They lay in a child's hand. A little boy was holding them tight and saying they were just right for his pea-shooter. At once he put one in the shooter and fired it. "Now I'm flying out into the wide world! Catch me if you can!" said the pea, and away it went. The second said, "I'm going to fly straight to the sun. That's a pod just right for me!" and away it went too. "We'll sleep wherever we land," said the next two, "but we'll still roll on." And they did fall on the floor and roll about, but in the end they were put into the shooter. "We'll go farthest!" "What will be, will be," said the last one. It too was shot off, and it flew up against the old board under the attic window, right into a little crack filled with moss and soft earth. The moss closed around it. There it lay hidden, but God did not forget it. "What will be, will be," it said.

In this attic lived a poor woman. All day long she went out to clean stoves, chop wood and do heavy work, for she was strong and hard-working. Yet she was still poor. At home in the little attic lay her only daughter. The girl was very delicate and thin. She had been lying in bed for a whole year, and it seemed she could neither live nor die. "She will go to her little sister," said the woman. "I had two children, and it was hard for me to care for both. But the dear Lord shared with me and took one to Himself. Now I want to keep the one I have left, but the Lord does not want them to be parted, and she will go to her sister above."

But the sick girl stayed where she was. While her mother was out earning their bread, she lay quietly and patiently all day long. Spring came. Early one morning, just as the mother was about to go to work, the sun shone pleasantly in through the little window and fell on the floor. The sick girl looked at the lowest windowpane. "What is that green thing peeping in by the window? It's moving in the wind." Her mother went to the window and opened it a little. "Why!" she said. "It's a little pea! It has sprouted here with its green leaves. How did it get into this crack? Here is a little garden for you to look at."

The sick girl's bed was moved closer to the window so that she could see the sprouting pea, and her mother went off to work. "Mother, I think I'm going to get well," said the little girl in the evening. "The sun shone in so warmly today. The little pea is growing so well, and I shall get well too and get up and go out into the sunshine." "I wish it were so!" said her mother, but she did not believe it would be. Still, she put a little stick beside the green shoot that had given her child such happy thoughts, so that the wind would not break it. She tied a piece of string to the window sill and to the top of the window frame, so that the pea tendrils would have something to cling to and twine round as they grew. And so they did; you could see it growing every day.

"It's really going to flower!" said the woman one morning. Now she too began to hope and believe that her sick daughter would get well. She had noticed lately that the child talked more brightly; for the last few mornings she had sat up in bed by herself to look at her little pea garden, and her eyes had shone. A week later the sick girl got up for the first time for a whole hour. She sat happily in the warm sunshine. The window was open, and outside a pink and white pea blossom had opened. The little girl bent her head and gently kissed its delicate petals. That day was like a holiday for her.

"The Lord Himself planted it and made it grow to give hope to you and to me, my dear child," said the happy mother, and she smiled at the flower as if it were an angel sent by God.

And what became of the other peas? The one that flew out into the wide world, saying "Catch me if you can!", fell into a roof gutter and ended up in a pigeon's crop. There it lay like Jonah in the whale. The two lazy ones were eaten by pigeons too, and at least they were of some use. But the fourth, the one that wanted to fly to the sun, fell into the gutter and lay for weeks in the dirty water until it was quite swollen. "How beautifully fat I'm getting!" said the pea. "I'll burst, and I don't think any pea has gone so far, or ever will. I'm the most remarkable of all five of us!" And the gutter agreed with it.

But at the attic window stood a young girl with shining eyes and the colour of health in her cheeks. She folded her thin hands over the pea blossom and thanked God for it. "I prefer my own pea," said the gutter.