The Bull Who Dreamed in Colors

Barnaby was not like other bulls. While the bulls in his pasture spent their days practicing their scary faces and charging at fences, Barnaby spent his days tending a secret garden in the corner of the meadow.

He grew the most delicious vegetables, but his favorites were his spinach patch and his papaya tree. The spinach leaves shimmered like emerald jewels in the morning sun, and the papayas glowed golden-orange like tiny suns.

"Bulls don't eat papayas," grunted Buster, the biggest bull in the herd. "Bulls don't tend gardens. Bulls are FIERCE."

Barnaby just smiled and watered his plants.

One day, a small girl named Lily wandered through the fence. She had been chasing a butterfly and didn't see the NO TRESSPASSING sign. When she spotted Barnaby, she froze.

But Barnaby didn't charge. He nudged a ripe papaya toward her with his soft nose.

"For me?" Lily asked, her eyes wide. She took a bite and gasped. "It tastes like sunshine!"

"And try this," Barnaby seemed to say, nudging some spinach leaves toward her.

Lily giggled. "Spinach from a bull? That's the silliest thing I've ever heard!" She tried it anyway—and it was the sweetest, most wonderful spinach she had ever tasted.

"I'm Lily," she said, patting Barnaby's giant head. "Will you be my friend?"

Barnaby's heart felt warmer than the summer sun. He had never had a friend before.

Every day after that, Lily came to visit. She helped Barnaby water his garden. They shared papayas and spinach under the shade of an old oak tree. The other bulls watched from afar, shaking their heads.

One afternoon, a terrible storm rolled in. The wind howled like a hungry wolf. Barnaby's papaya tree bent dangerously. His spinach patch was washing away in the rain!

Barnaby tried to hold the plants down with his hooves, but he couldn't protect them all at once.

Suddenly, Lily came running through the rain. She brought blankets and stakes and rope. Together, she and Barnaby worked through the storm—she tying up the bent branches, he pushing soil back around the spinach roots. The other bulls huddled in the barn, safe and dry.

When morning came, Barnaby's garden was safe. His papaya tree stood straight again, and the spinach leaves reached toward the sun.

Buster came out from the barn. He looked at Barnaby, then at Lily, then at the beautiful garden they had saved together.

"Maybe," Buster said slowly, "there's more to being a bull than being fierce."

Barnaby looked at his friend Lily and smiled. Sometimes the strongest thing you can do is grow something beautiful—and sometimes the best friends come in the most surprising packages.