"Just One Lullaby" Story

by: Holly Hughes Once upon a time there was a little town nestled in the mountains. This little town was very run down and shabby and all of its inhabitants were very poor with no ambition to be any more in life than they already were. One day the king called all of his subjects in this little town together and announced that he had intentionally switched one of the babies in the town at birth with his own royal child, however the king refused to reveal which child was indeed the royal child and the town would just have to figure it out for themselves. As a result of this announcement, the town's people started to treat all of the children as if they were royalty, you see no one who lived in the town wanted to incur the wrath of the king because they had treated the royal child in any way other than that fitting to a prince or princess. Twenty years later the king returned to the same town only to find the once shabby run down town had turned into a much larger bustling metropolitan area with very proud hard working subjects. The king was very proud of how far the town had come in the past twenty years, so once again the king called together all his royal subjects in the town together to congratulate them and to tell them who the actual prince or princess was who had lived among them for so many years. The town's people bustled with anticipation, speculation ran high, every parent was convinced it was his or her child that was indeed the true prince or princess. At last the king stood and started to speak, "My royal subjects today I would like to congratulate each and every one of you for the excellent progress your town has made and I would also like to tell you why this wonderful transition has taken place." "Twenty years ago I visited your town and told every one I had switched my royal child with one of the townspeople babies, well this story was not true, I wanted all of my royal subjects to learn the value of our children and the overwhelming benefits of treating each and every one of our children as if they were princes or princesses." "Look around, you see what your efforts to treat all of your children as royalty has reaped, be proud of yourselves for producing a generation of gentle, loving and responsible adults. "A generation of people who have grown up with love and gentle nurturing making them happy, well adjusted adults with the skills and ability to create a healthy prosperous town and to create a cycle of parenting, conducive to the on-going success of both families and businesses for the future." This very wise king had indeed taught this town a very valuable lesson about the value of each and every child and the benefits we all enjoy when each child is given all the love and nurturing befitted that of royal children. THE END Back to Episode Guide - Season 2