[qing02051981]

Today, I'm going to share with you a story called "The Carrot Seed" that began as a 10,000 word saga.

Its author, Ruth Krauss, claimed that it took her an entire lifetime to craft. Not satisfied with the impact the original version had, Krauss whittled the text down to its final 101 words, making it one of the shortest picture book texts when it was published in 1945.

Here's how it goes?

A little boy planted a carrot seed.

His mother said, "I'm afraid it won't come up."

His father said, "I'm afraid it won't come up."

And his brother said, "It won't come up."

Everyday the little boy pulled up the weeds around the seed and sprinkled the ground with water.

But nothing came up.

And nothing came up.

Everyone kept saying it wouldn't come up.

But he still pulled up the weeds around it every day and sprinkled the ground with water.

And then, one day, a carrot came up.

Just as the little boy had known it would.

And that was a story called "The Carrot Seed" by Ruth Krauss.

Countless interpretations have been made about its philosophy, but most accept that it's a tale about the power of action and positive thought. About the power of childhood faith, and what one can achieve if he refuses to be distracted by external dissonance and perseveres in what he believes in.

A Slice of Life is written, produced and presented by Eugene Loh unless otherwise stated. If you wish to share the scripts with others, please credit 'Eugene Loh, 938LIVE, a station of MediaCorp Radio'.