The summer days were so bright and pleasant that the acorn never
thought of anything but sunshine and an occasional shower to wash the
dust off the leaves. But summer ends, and the autumn days came. The
green cup of the acorn turned to a brown cup, and it was well that it
grew stiffer and harder, for the cold winds began to blow.
The leaves turned from green to golden brown, and some of them were
whisked away by the rough wind. The little acorn began to grow uneasy.
"Isn't it always summer?" it asked.
"Oh, no," whispered the mother oak, "the cold days come and the leaves
must go and the acorns too. I must soon lose my babies."
"Oh, I could never leave this kind bough," said the frightened acorn.
"I should be lost and forgotten if I were to fall."
So it tried to cling all the closer to its bough; but at last it was
alone there. The leaves were blown away, and some of them had made a
blanket for the brown acorns lying on the ground.
One night the tree whispered a message to the lonely acorn. "This tree
is your home only for a time. This is not your true life. Your brown
shell is only the cover for a living plant, which can never be set
free until the hard shell drops away, and that can never happen until
you are buried in the ground and wait for the spring to call you.
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