The Great Fairy Book

How it comes that roses have thorns

How it comes that roses have thorns.

This all happened a very long time ago. It was in the time where roses didn’t have thorns yet, and where all the flowers still lived together in one small garden.

You see, the rose was the most beautiful of all the flowers. All the other flowers agreed on that. They also agreed that the thorn bush was the ugliest flower in the garden. She wasn’t even a real flower, they said. Just a bunch of ugly thorns.

So every time the thorn bush asked to join them, the rose and the other flowers said no.

“Why not?” asked the thorn bush then.

“Because you are ugly,” said the rose.

All the other flowers laughed at the thorn bush and then continued talking about their petals and their leaves.

So the thorn bush shrank back and wished she had petals and leaves too, just like the other flowers. But all she had were big and ugly thorns.

Then suddenly two large feet entered the garden. The feet were not so very large, but to the flowers they seemed large enough. Those feet belonged to a girl.

“Watch out!” called the flowers and they tried to get away. But they were flowers so they could not move very far.

The girl bent down to look at all the flowers and she decided that the rose was the most beautiful. So she reached for the rose. The rose slapped her leaves against the girl’s hand, but of course they were only leaves and they didn’t hurt the girl. The rose’s stem broke and the girl walked away with the rose’s beautiful petals.

The rose cried, because now she only had her stem and leaves left. Her beautiful petals were gone.

She went to the other flowers for comfort, but they shooed her away.

“You have no petals,” they said. “You are no flower anymore.”

“But I am!” cried the rose.

The tulip pushed the rose away and showed off her own petals. “No, you are not,” said the tulip, “and since you are no flower anymore, that means I am the most beautiful flower now.”

All the other flowers nodded and agreed, and continued talking about their petals and their leaves.

So the rose started crying again.

Then the thorn bush came a bit closer and said, “Don’t worry, rose, they will grow back.”

The rose looked up at the thorn bush and sniffed. “Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yes,” said the thorn bush, “and if you want, I’ll protect you the next time they try to pick your petals.”

“Would you really do that?” asked the rose.

“Of course,” said the thorn bush.

And the rose’s petals did grow back, just as the thorn bush said, and the rose and the thorn bush were always together. So the next time a girl came to pick the rose’s petals, she was pricked by a large thorn. She didn’t pick the rose, thanks to the thorn bush, but she did pick the tulip. The tulip was, after all, the most beautiful flower next to the rose.

And so it comes that roses have thorns, and that flowers don’t laugh at thorn bushes anymore. Not even tulips.