Just a Little Kindness: Laura E. Richards’s Short Children’s Story, ‘The Coming of the King’

"Game of Handball With Country Palace in Background," 1614, by Adrean van der Venne. Getty Museum. Public Domain

No matter what evil or wrong we do, kindness rekindles and fans the flames of goodness and virtue in us. Kindness highlights the true worth of our beautiful humanity.

In her short story, “The Coming of the King,” Laura E. Richards shows how the kindness that the children at a playground show a tired stranger makes him as valued as a king. When the children treat the stranger with kindness, they highlight not only his value and specialness as an individual, but also their own value as humans capable of kindness.

A Herald Comes

As the children play within the walls of their playground, a herald rides by and announces that the king will pass by later that day. The children are so excited! But they instantly realize that their playground is extremely messy and by no means fit for the presence of a king.

Determined to impress the king and show him the value of themselves and their playground, the children get to work organizing and cleaning. With a hoe, a rake, and a wheelbarrow, the children work to make the playground cleaner.

Standing back, proud of the new tidiness of their play area, the children decide that just cleanliness will not do. They must make it beautiful as well. Some bring rushes, others garlands of oak and pine, and the youngest child brings marigold buds to decorate the grounds.

The playground now looks so beautiful that the children are determined to keep it this way. The clap their hands for joy and wait for the king’s arrival.

A Tired Traveler

However, as the day passes, the king does not arrive. In his stead, a man “with travel-worn clothes, and a kind, tired face passes along the road, and stops to look over the wall.”

The tired traveler is charmed by the beautiful playground and the children that keep it. He asks if he may come in and rest.

The children joyfully welcome him into their grounds. They bring him to a chair, which they transformed into a throne for the king, and supply a cup of water. Then they tell him all of their exciting secrets: “the five puppies in the barn, and the thrush’s nest with four blue eggs, and the shore where the gold shells grow.” They treat him like a king.

A Little Kindness

Through the children, Richards shows us, as Aesop says in “The Lion and the Mouse” that “no act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” Though the children merely welcome the tired man into the garden for a rest and a cup of water, their kindness goes far beyond a few, simple actions.

Kindness highlights the true worth of our abilities, as humans, to reach the heights of virtue, truth, and goodness. When we perform simple acts of kindness, we recognize the value of our neighbor as an individual human.

When we practice kindness, we raise our neighbor to royal status. Thus, kindness makes kings and queens of the whole human race.