Real wealth comes from the soil.

Many years ago there lived a little girl named Merline. Her mother had to go out and sew, while Merline stayed home and cared for the house. One day Merline’s mother came home sick, and the next day she could not go to work. This was very bad, but Merline was a brave little girl and worked and cared for her sick mother. The doctor came in one day and told Merline she must go out for a walk, and that a walk would put the roses in her cheeks. “And, besides,” said the doctor, “you might find some gold somewhere.”

Merline walked slowly down the road and into the woods, looking for roses, thinking about gold, and listening to the birds. Now and then she stopped to pick some flowers to take to her mother.

By and by she came to an oak tree that had a big hollow place in it. She climbed in, leaned her head back and closed her eyes. No sooner had she done this than she felt herself gradually sinking. She was afraid to open her eyes for awhile, but when she did, she was in the dearest little room, just the kind of room that she had often wished to have for her doll.

Merline was looking about in wonder, when she heard a soft voice behind her. Turning around, she saw a tiny little fairy that looked for all the world just like the fairies in her storybook. Merline told the fairy all about her sick mother, and how she had cared for her, and how the doctor had sent her out to look for roses and perhaps to find some gold.

“You poor child,” said the fairy, “I will help you all I can.” As she said this she took off her pointed cap and shook it over Merline’s lap. As she did this, a great many gold pieces fell from it.

Merline clapped her hands for joy when the fairy told her that all the gold was hers. “Now I shall have enough to buy medicine, and food, and my mother need not work any more,” said she.

She closed her eyes to try to think whether this was all true or not, and when she opened them she was in the old hollow tree again. She looked in her lap for the gold, but there was nothing there except some small seeds. “These may be gold seeds,” said Merline, as she jumped from the tree and ran home.

In a few days her mother was much better, and together they went into the orchard and planted the seeds. Merline watched them as they sprouted and sent tiny shoots above the ground. She and the plants grew up together.

Several years passed and the seeds had grown into trees, and Merline had grown into a fine young woman. The trees were covered with beautiful white blossoms, and when the fruit ripened it looked like big round lumps of gold. “They were seeds of gold after all,” said Merline one day. But everybody else thought they were orange seeds.