The Enchanted Pencils

Once upon a time, in a small stationery store, amidst the many pens, inks, and paints, there was a battered wooden box containing colorful pencils. These were no ordinary pencils; the shopkeeper himself had made them and enchanted them with magic. As soon as someone opened the box, the pencils came to life and could even speak!

They were pencils of exceptionally beautiful colors, each with a different hue: black, white, lemon yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, dark blue, light blue, dark green, light green, and brown, among many others. But as beautiful as they were, they were just as ugly in their behavior towards each other. Each pencil believed that its color was the most beautiful in the world. They looked down on each other and only praised themselves. The shopkeeper, therefore, sold them much cheaper than the other pencils, but no one wanted quarrelsome colored pencils in their home, so they were always brought back to the store.

Liza was a little girl from a poor family who loved to draw, but her parents couldn’t afford colored pencils. On her way home from school, she would always take a detour to the stationery store and gaze longingly at the box of colored pencils in the window. One day, Liza was sad to see that the box was no longer in its place. She walked on dejectedly, but then the shopkeeper called out to her. “I see you really like the pencils, and since no one wants to buy them, I’ll give them to you as a gift. But you must promise that you won’t bring them back and that you’ll draw lots of beautiful pictures with them!” Liza nodded happily, thanked the shopkeeper, and ran home to start drawing as soon as possible.

Upon opening the box, Liza was taken aback to find that instead of the usual school pencils, she had received a rowdy and grumbling bunch:

“Green is definitely the most beautiful color! The light green!”

“Oh, come on, everyone knows that dark green is the prettiest!”

“Stop it, orange is the best color of all!”

Frightened, Liza slammed the lid of the box shut and tried to shove it under her closet. But the shopkeeper’s words came back to her, and she steeled herself. “I love to draw! And these are pencils! I’ll figure out a way to make it work!”

She sighed heavily, took out a sheet of paper, and sat down at the table. She opened the noisy box and began to draw. She took out the colored pencils one by one, but they did not stop bickering even during her drawing. Everyone wanted to compete, saying, “Draw with me now!” or “She likes my color the best!” Meanwhile, Liza quietly worked on her first drawing, ignoring the pencils’ arguments. They only became a bit quieter when Liza was about to put the black pencil into the sharpener.

“No way! I can draw a beautiful line like this too, you don’t need to sharpen me!” – said the black pencil.

“Alright, alright. But be quieter then!”

And so it was, the pencils continued their chatter, but much more subdued. Liza drew tirelessly for hours, then suddenly picked up the finished picture and showed it to the now weary and silent group. The pencils immediately came to their senses, watching with wide eyes and admiration as Liza proudly showed them her creation.

They saw a magnificent landscape where all their colors harmoniously blended together, creating something truly beautiful. The black and white pencil created the shadows and light, the lemon yellow and orange the sunlight, the red and pink the flowers, the purple, dark blue and light blue the sky, the dark and light green the grass, and the brown the earth and the trunks of the trees.

The pencils understood that everyone has a place and a role in the picture, and that together they are much more valuable. That night, the pencils no longer quarreled, but fell asleep proudly in the wooden box, knowing that they had all contributed to Liza’s masterpiece.

And so they lived happily ever after, drawing new and different pictures every day, until they were worn out.