tree. "I can give you berries
all winter long, and every bird knows that juniper berries are good."

So the spruce gave the lonely little bird a home; the pine kept the cold
North Wind away from it; and the juniper gave it berries to eat. The
other trees looked on and talked together wisely.

"I would not have strange birds on my boughs," said the birch.

"I shall not give my acorns away for any one," said the oak.

"I never have anything to do with strangers," said the willow, and the
three trees drew their leaves closely about them.

In the morning all those shining, green leaves lay on the ground, for
a cold North Wind had come in the night, and every leaf that it touched
fell from the tree.

"May I touch every leaf in the forest?" asked the wind in its frolic.

"No," said the Frost King. "The trees that have been kind to the little
bird with the broken wing may keep their leaves."

This is why the leaves of the spruce, the pine, and the juniper are
always green.

WHY THE ASPEN QUIVERS

OLD LEGEND

Long, long ago, so the legend says, when Joseph and Mary and the Holy
Babe fled out of Bethlehem into Egypt, they passed through the
green wildwood. And flowers and trees and plants bent their heads in
reverence.

But the proud aspen held its head high and refused even to look at the
Holy Babe. In vain the birds sang in the aspen's branches, entreating it
to gaze for one moment at the wonderful One; the proud tree still held
its head erect in scorn.

Then outspake Mary, his mother. "O aspen tree," she said, "why do you
not gaze on the Holy Child? Why do you not bow your head? A star arose
at his birth, angels sang his first lullaby, kings and shepherds came to
the brightness of his rising; why, then, O aspen, do you refuse to honor
your Lord and mine?"

But the aspen could not answer. A strange shivering passed through its
stem and along its boughs, which set its leaves a-quivering. It trembled
before the Holy Babe.

And so from age to age, even unto this day, the proud aspen shakes and
shivers.

THE WONDER TREE

BY FRIEDRICH ADOLPH KRUMMACHER (ADAPTED)

One day in the springtime, Prince Solomon was sitting under the palm
trees in the royal gardens, when he saw the Prophet Nathan walking near.

"Nathan," said the Prince, "I would see a wonder."

The Prophet smiled. "I had the same desire in the days of my youth," he
replied.

"And was it fulfilled?" asked Solomon.

"A Man of God ca