Page 49 - Tree of Happiness

“Well..”. said the Elf, “You completed all of the tasks and now I must give you the KEY .” With great flourish, he reached into his shirt and took out the large golden key . The Queen grabbed it and ran to the Tree of Happiness.
She put the key in the lock, turned the key, opened the door and went inside. In an instant she jumped back out of the tree and said to the Elf... “This is just an old empty tree!”
“Is it?” questioned the Elf. “Tell me Queen, are you happier now than the first time we met?” ‘Well...”and the Queen thought for several minutes, “Yes, I am quite a bit happier,” she admitted.
“Tell me,” the Elf asked again, “Do people still dislike you?” “Oh no,” she said. “Since I went around and talked to all the people and told them how important they were to me, how much it meant to me to be their Queen... well, now they treat me like they treated my mother. They cheer when they see me and throw flowers when I ride through the town.”
“Oh I see,” said the Elf. “And are your people still dreadfully poor?” “No!” said the Queen. “Since we built the Queen’s Road, now there is commerce up and down it. People learned job skills while we were building the road, they also had an income. Why, now traders go up and down the road selling their goods. We have Wal Marts and McDonalds and everything!”
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