Reading Notes, More Jataka Tales, Part A: The Red-Bud Tree

American Eastern Redbud Tree

(Source: Wikipedia Commons)

There once were four young princes that heard about a magical tree called the Red-Bud tree. They had never seen one but were praying that they would get the chance to. The oldest prince asked their chariot driver to take them to see one in the woods. They went in the early spring so the tree was bare and he couldn't understand why it was called the Red-Bud tree. The second oldest prince went later in the spring and it had red buds. The third oldest prince went later after they and he couldn't understand why it was called  Red-Bud tree if it had green leaves. Later, the youngest prince went to see the Red-Bud tree and it was covered with little bean-pods. He ran back to his brothers and began bragging about how he saw the Red-Bud tree and its special pods. His other brother was like "Haha, you probably saw the wrong tree. It has green leaves." The other prince was laughing at his brothers because it had no leaves at all. The king overheard this conversation and xplained to them that they all saw the same tree in different seasons.

Source: More Jataka Tales by Ellec=n C. Babbitt, The Red Bud Tree.