by: Anonymous

“The love of money is the root of all evil.” It’s true.
It makes people do things that they never thought they’d do.

It makes people betray and put down their friends
Just so they can get the money in the end.

The love of money is nothing like the love of men;
It makes people covet things that don’t belong to them.

It can blind people and be the only thing they see.
It can make a man lie so endlessly.

It can make you realize the following is true:
Sometimes what you’re looking for is right in front of you.

***

There once was a young woman named Isabella Goodman
Who was admired by not one, but by two men.

One was high-class and rich, and as dashing as could be,
One was humble and poor, but “I love her,” to his sister said he.

You see, the rich man named George did not love the girl.
He wanted more money more than anything else in the world.

But the poor man named Ben had a character pure and true;
He loved her with all his heart and wanted her to love him too.

So while Ben worked for days and days to buy her a ring,
George tried to buy Bella’s love by buying her many nice things.

Even though he had so much money of his own,
George wanted even more for him and him alone.

Isabella was blind to George’s evil intention;
She was too busy being flattered by all his attention.

When Ben saw George with Bella it truly broke his heart.
Ben just wanted to marry her and never be apart.

He saw through George’s masks of many smiles,
But he kept his love to Isabella a secret all the while.

They had grown up together as friends since they were small.
To him, Isabella was the most wonderful of all.

Though Bella was close to Ben as two friends can be,
Bella’s views were blinded by the man who had lots of money.

Ben’s cousin Anna was Bella’s best friend, like a sister,
So Anna could tell Bella when she should ditch a mister.

One day Anna was walking on her way home from school,
And she saw a boasting George who was acting like a fool.

He was telling his evil, greedy plan to all his friends.
He said how if her married Bella he’d get lots of money in the end,

How he had heard a story about all the money saved by her father,
And how when he died it would be an inheritance for his daughter.

Bella’s father was advanced in years, he was a very old man.
People in the town said that soon he would soon kick the can.

So George wanted to marry Bella so when her father died.
He exclaimed, “It won’t be long until all that money is mine!”

Anna knew George had never loved Bella, and now it was confirmed.
She ran home as fast as she could to tell Bella all she had heard.

So Bella listened and learned the hard truth, but then
Coming down from a long day’s work was Ben.

He had finally earned enough to buy one special thing.
He held it in his hand; it was a shining golden ring.

Today was the day he planned to tell Bella he loved her,
And ask her to marry him and promise to be true forever.

Anna told Ben what had happened and he knew it was meant to be,
So he took Bella’s hand and got down on one knee.

And that was when Bella realized the truth so strong:
That Ben was the one who she had loved all along.