The Golden Wheelbarrow

Ben is a young gardener with a round, cheerful face, freckles across his nose, green overalls and red rubber boots. His most treasured possession is a shiny golden wheelbarrow with two friendly painted eyes on its front panel, and each morning he pushes it through the garden to plant flowers and vegetables. Beyond the garden rises a big, rounded hill with a gentle, sleepy face in the earth, and Ben promises the hillside that he will look after it.

One day heavy rain pours down and washes away the plants on the hillside, leaving brown muddy patches and a sad, unsmiling hill. Ben pulls on his gardening gloves and boots, collects new plants from the greenhouse and loads them into the golden wheelbarrow. Trip after trip, he pushes the heavy load up the steep, muddy slope, digs holes, pats the soil and waters the new plants. His friend Mia joins him with a trowel and a bucket of water, and together they keep working until the hillside slowly turns green again. Written by Yavuz DEMİRKIRAN, this gentle tale about patient, repeated effort can be read on Online Masal.