There was a beautiful garden in a house. It was full of beautiful flowers and was kept very well. Outside the fence there were some wildflowers. Among them grew an exquisite little white daisy. It had white silvery petals and a golden yellow centre and stood gracefully on its stalk, swaying in the breeze.
It stood on a patch of grass, touched by the sun and the breeze. In fact, it was as happy as the flowers that bloomed inside the garden.
One day, the daisy looked up and saw a lark flying in the sky and singing happily. ‘The lark must have seen the beautiful flowers in the garden and will go to them. How lucky they are!’ thought the daisy.
Suddenly, the lark flew straight down to the daisy, much to its great surprise. The lark liked the soft grass and sang around the daisy, “What a lovely flower, with silver petals and a golden heart!” The lark kissed the daisy. The daisy was utterly delighted.
That night, it dreamt of the lark and awoke in the morning wondering if it would see the lark again. It waited for some time. Then it heard the lark singing. But that day, its song was different. ‘Yesterday it was sounding so happy when it sang,’ thought the daisy, ‘Why is its song so sad today.
It looked around to see where the sound was coming from. The daisy saw a cage hanging up besides the window of the house beyond the garden. And there in the cage was the poor lark, singing sadly. It was imprisoned in the cage that hung near the window and had lost the freedom to fly.
Then the daisy saw two little boys came out of the house to where it was growing. They were talking. “Let’s cut some grass and take it for the lark,” said one boy. “Let’s take the patch. It has a daisy on it too. It will make the lark happy,” said the other boy. So, one little boy cut a patch of grass with a daisy on it. The other little boy picked up the cage and both went inside the house.
They carefully put it inside the cage. The lark was very thirsty and chirped, asking for some water. But they did not understand the need of the lark at all, nor could they understand its chirping. So, they forgot to put water for the poor lark to drink. Then they went off to play.
The lark pecked at the grass hoping to suck some water from it. It saw the daisy and kissed it again. The lark said sadly, “We should be free outside, with the sunshine and the breeze. But we’ll fade away here.”
There was no way for the daisy to help the lark. It couldn’t even move. The lark kept struggling to suck up some moisture from the grass. By the time night fell, its wings drooped. The lark was exhausted and sat miserably on the patch of grass. The daisy could not shut its petals either. It watched the lark helplessly as it too wilted on its stalk.
In the morning, the boys returned to find that the lark and the daisy had died. Both lay on the patch of grass. The lark’s head lay on the daisy and one petal from the daisy had fallen on the lark.
They felt very sad and guilty at not having taken care of them properly. They took them out and laid them under a tree.
The sun and the breeze touched them as they had when the lark flew in the sky and the daisy bloomed on the patch of grass. But alas! The lark and the daisy could not feel the sunshine or the breeze. They were far away now, happy in heaven together.
