FOREST LEAVES 99 



your boughs with cones, which will last much 

 longer than the colored candles on a Christmas 



tree." 



^*I will grow and grow and grow till I touch 

 the stars 1" cried the little tree, and lifted her 

 head higher and higher and grew so tall that 

 her green garment no longer swept the 

 ground, for her slender stem was like a col- 

 umn, and she wore her branches like a crown. 

 In time no other tree shut out the sunlight or 

 the sight of the stars. 



''Oh, if I could reach you I" she would cry, 

 when the snow lay deep about her feet and the 

 stars sparkled in the sky. 



The only music on these winter nights was 

 the song of the spruce trees, though sometimes 

 the maples talked in their sleep when the wind 

 jostled them too roughly. Yet often the little 

 spruce tree could hear another sound, like a 

 far-away call from the valley. 



''What is that in the valley, and whom is it 

 calling?'' she asked. 



"It is the river," replied the old spruce, 

 "calling the trees to come." 



