“Now we are in the world sure enough and we shall see what will happen,” said the beans. The little boy put one bean into his pea shooter and away it went into the gutter to be washed away by the rain. Another bean went up into the air and fell into a chicken yard, where the old hen promptly ate it. Still another bean fell into the street and a wagon rolled over it. And that is what happened to three beans.
But let us see about the fourth bean. The little boy was passing a house where a poor woman lived with her sick daughter. The woman went to work every day, but the girl had to stay in bed all the time. It was very lonesome all day in bed with mother away at work. The little boy shot his pea shooter with the bean in it, and the bean fell into a bed of soft moss right under the sick girl’s window.
One morning when the sun peeped into the window of her room the little sick child cried: “Look out of the window, mother! What can that green thing be?” The mother went to the window.
“Oh,” said she, “that is a little bean, it has taken root and is putting out its green leaves.” Then she moved the little girl’s bed to the window and went off to work. The child was happy every day watching the vine climb higher and higher until it reached the window sill and she could touch it with her hand.
A week later the sick child sat up in the sunshine a whole hour. The window was open and just outside was the little vine covered with white blossoms.
The mother felt that her daughter would get well. The child kissed the beautiful flowers. “I wonder from where the little bean came,” said the little girl.
“Our heavenly father planted that bean,” said the mother. “He has made it grow to be a joy to you and me.” The child folded her hands over the blossoms and said: “Oh, I will not mind being sick if I can have a little flower like this to watch every day.”