Once upon a time, there was an umbrella maker who lived in a town. But he was unable to sell many umbrellas, so he and his family became very poor. They hardly had enough to eat. They lived in a tiny cottage with a garden with wild berries and a pear tree on which no fruits grew. The poor man thought he was really unlucky.
One day, there was a terrible storm and a big branch of the tree broke and fell. The man hauled the branch into his workshop. He began to carve little pears of all sizes out of the wood. He gave them to his children to play, joking that they were pears from the tree!
The family had one umbrella that they all shared. It was in a very bad condition. If the wind was strong, the umbrella would turn inside out, which made it thoroughly useless! The button that held its leaves when it was closed would break off every time it was used.
Once when the button broke off, the umbrella maker could not find where it had rolled off. He painted one of the tiny pears he had carved and pierced it with a button-hole. Then he stitched it in place of the button. He made a loop through which the pear could be pushed so that it might hold the umbrella firmly closed.
He used to sell his umbrellas through a shop in the town. He now sent a batch of umbrellas to the shopkeeper with the ‘pear-buttons’ on them. The umbrellas sold out very fast because of the little buttons! And the shopkeeper ordered more, because they were so popular.
The umbrellas with the little ‘pear-buttons’ were soon selling like hot cakes and the umbrella maker became rich. In a short time, he could set up a factory with many workers to make even more umbrellas.
He had always thought himself unlucky. But now, he knew he was truly lucky, and his luck lay in a button— a pear-shaped button!
