Children's Corner

Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 11, 7 August 1930, Page 4

Children's Corner

Why the Evergreen Trees Keep

Their Leaves in Winter.

One day, a long- time ago, it was very cold • winter was coming And the birds flew away to the .warm, south to wait for the spring. But one little bird had a broken wing-, and could not fly. He did not know what to do. He looked all round to see if there was any place where he could keep warm, and he saw tne trees of the great forest. So he went to the edge of the forest, hopping and fluttering with his broken wing. The first tree he came to was a great oak-tree. "O big oak-tree," said the little bird, "will you let me live in your warm branches until the springtime conies*?" "Dear me," satfl the oak m a lecp, gruff voice, "what a thing to ask! If you stay in my branches all the winter you will be eating my acorns, ffo away. The pine tree; stood beside the oak, and when he saw the .little' bird hopping disconsolately away he said very kindly: "My bran'r ches are not very warm, but I cart keep the wind off because I am big and strong." And the mimosa : bush on the ground close by, not to he outdou^ by the big 1 tree, said in a sweet little voice: "I should like to have you, but as you can't fly and there are wild dogs and cats about here, it would not be safe for you so near the ground, but if yoii can hop up into the pine tree for safety I can feed you during the winter from my store of seeds and the grubs that live among my roots." So the little bird slept up in- , the big tree quite safely, and sometimes visited the hoary old eucalyptus by hopping up by its loose bark, and all the winter,' the, mimosa bush gave it plenty of food. The other tre es-^the bir.ch, the oak, and the willow^l66lced on disapprovingly, and made unkind: I remarks about, th c ugliness ■; of the\ dark-leaved-pine v and the spikylittle mimosa. .■ •'."■"■■ ; But one night the Gold Wind Sprite came to the forest to playr He puffed at the leaves with his icy breath, and every leaf he totteh ed fell to the ground, ila was delighted to see what havoc he <iould make, and asked his father, the Frost King, if he might touch every leaf. '* ■ "No," said the Frost King,. "The trees which are kind to th<v bird with the broken wing may keep their leaves." . So the Cold "Wind Sprite had to leave the pine-tree and the eucalyptus and the mimosa alone, and they kept their leaves all through the winter. And they have done so ever since.