"
So the summer passed and her heart grew sad, for she saw the discontent
of her companion, but she said to herself, "When the winter comes I will
shelter him from the blasts," but he said complainingly, "I would I were
like the other trees; I would like my garments to be as those I see
around me. I would my limbs were as those of my companions all through
the forest." And she heard, and said to herself, "I will make his
garments of brilliant green." So she sent from her own roots and
branches the sap--her life blood--to enrich the roots and beautify the
dress of her companion. When the cold blast of winter swept through the
forest she sheltered him with her long limbs, when the snow fell she
covered his head with her branches and caught the weight of snow in her
own arms; so all through the long winter she sheltered him from the
blasts and the weight of snow bore heavily on her branches and at times
they grew weary almost to breaking but her great heart never faltered.
So the spring came and day by day she sent from her own store of
life-blood to enrich that of her companion and soon his garments assumed
the most brilliant hues of all the trees in the forest; the leaves
glinted and glistened in the sunlight, and from the branches there was
ever a low murmur of song; the birds came to build their nests and rear
their young in his arms; and over all there floated a delicate perfume
born of the love which she had breathed over him all the long winter.
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