A Beautiful Blue Dress

In a poor neighborhood in a distant city, lived a very pretty little girl. She attended the local school. Her mother was not very careful and the child was almost always dirty. Her clothes were very old and battered.

The teacher was penalized by the girl’s situation: 
– “How can such a pretty girl come to school so shabby?”. 

He separated some money from his salary and, although with difficulty, decided to buy her a new dress. She looked beautiful in the blue dress.

When the mother saw her daughter in that beautiful blue dress, she felt it was unfortunate that her daughter, wearing that new outfit, was so dirty for school. So she started to bathe her every day, comb her hair, cut her nails.

When the week ended, the father said: 
– Woman, don’t you think it’s a shame that our daughter, being so pretty and well-groomed, lives in a place like this, falling apart? How about you fix the house? In my spare time, I’ll paint the walls, fix the fence and plant a garden.

Soon, the house stood out in the small village for the beauty of the flowers that filled the garden, and the care in every detail. Neighbors were embarrassed for living in ugly shacks and also decided to tidy up their houses, plant flowers, use paint and creativity.

Before long, the entire neighborhood was transformed. A man, who was following the efforts and struggles of those people, thought that they well deserved help from the authorities. He went to the mayor to present his ideas and left with authorization to form a commission to study the improvements that would be needed in the neighborhood.

The mud street was replaced by stone pavement. Open sewers were channeled and the neighborhood gained an air of citizenship.

Seeing that neighborhood so beautiful and so well cared for, who would have thought that it all started with a blue dress?