When Little Spruce was very small, she was interested in absolutely everything. Wherever she looked, everything was fascinating. The most amazing things to her were the changes in nature.
In summer, all the trees looked the same. And she was just like everyone else. And everyone was like one big, close-knit family.
But suddenly, when the heat broke and the rains began and the cold arrived, something started happening to her friends. Their leaves changed colour and turned bright and speckled. Little Spruce couldn't get enough of looking at them: how beautiful they were! And she kept waiting for her own needles to become that bright too.
Yellow or red, or maybe orange? Every evening, as she fell asleep, she dreamed that her outfit would change. But morning came, and nothing happened.
Oh!— Little Spruce sighed sadly. She felt so sorry for herself. And she was so cross with her needles, which refused to change. Instead, they grew stiffer and springier, and her branches grew fluffier and more spread out.
Little Spruce stayed sad until the strong winds began to blow. One morning she woke up and thought she had stepped into a fairy tale. The ground looked as though it had been painted with colours: yellow, red, orange—everything she loved.
Oh, how beautiful! Look! she exclaimed, speaking to her friends the trees.
Yes, yes, they replied slowly, as if they were drifting off to sleep. We know. This happens every autumn.
Autumn! So that's what it's called. Aaah-tumn, sang Little Spruce, admiring the speckled carpet of leaves. Then she noticed that these lovely leaves were tearing away from her friends' branches and falling, and the trees themselves were becoming bare and defenceless, exposing their branches and trunks to every wind and rain.
Now she felt sorry for the trees. That was when Little Spruce came to love her needles, the ones she had scolded so recently. After all, it was her needles, staying green, that protected and saved her delicate little body from the wind and the cold.
My needles may not be able to change colour, and I may not have such beauty, but right now I feel good and calm, she thought. Yes, I am always the same, but I actually like it even more: let it stay this way forever!
Little Spruce had no idea that her green twigs were loved by others too, because in winter they remind everyone of summer and warmth. And they also smell wonderfully of pine needles and resin.
