192 Our Field and Forest Trees 



The leaves enjoy a butterfly time when they live 

 on sweet things and do no work, and in this, their 

 one holiday, many of them wear gay colors. 



Little maple leaves are crimson or purple ; those 

 of the willows are golden green ; and budding oaks 

 mist the hillside woods with pink. The green 

 color is part of the leaves' working outfit — and 

 they will not put it on till they get to work. 



While leaves are still young, they are full of 

 folding creases. Now we can see how they have 

 been packed into those surprising buds, which look 

 so small in winter, and disclose so much in spring- 

 time. 



The leaves of the cherry and of the oak have 

 been folded down the middle, so that their sides 

 come together like the covers of a book. Maple 

 and currant leaves have been plaited like fans; and 

 in the buds of the plum tree, each leaf has been 

 rolled like a scroll. 



Soon the rolls and wrinkles which have been 

 made by tight packing are shaken out, in spring 

 breezes. Soon, too, the golden, bronze, or rosy 

 tints are changed to green — which. In the plant 

 world, is the color of honest work. 



The leaves' work is to prepare the plant's food. 

 Each leaf might be called a little kitchen, or a 

 little factory. In it minerals and water, taken 

 from the earth by the roots, and gases, taken from 

 the air by the leaf itself, are made over new Into 

 plant substance. 



