When Little Spruce was very small, everything interested her. Wherever she looked, everything was fascinating. The most wonderful things to her were the changes in nature.
In summer, all the trees looked the same. She was just like everyone else, and everyone was like one big, friendly family.
But suddenly, when the heat faded, the rains began and the cold set in, something started happening to her friends. Their leaves changed color and turned bright and multicolored. Little Spruce could not get enough of looking at them: how beautiful they were! And she kept waiting for her own prickles to become 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! she sighed sadly. She felt so sorry for herself, and she was so angry at her prickles, which refused to change. Instead, they grew hard and springy, and her branches grew fluffy and spread wide.
So Little Spruce grieved until strong winds began to blow. One morning she woke up and thought she had stepped into a fairy tale. The ground looked painted with colors: yellow, red, orange, everything she loved.
Oh, how beautiful! Look! she exclaimed, speaking to her tree friends.
Yes, yes, they said slowly, as if 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 colorful carpet of leaves. Then she noticed that these lovely leaves were tearing away from her friends' branches and falling, and the trees were becoming bare and defenseless, exposing their branches and trunks to all the winds and rains.
Now she felt sorry for the trees. That was when Little Spruce came to love the prickles she had scolded so recently. For it was the prickles, staying green, that protected and saved her slender little body from the wind and cold.
My prickles may not change color, and I may not have such beauty, but right now I feel good and calm, Little Spruce thought. Yes, I am always the same, but I actually like that even more. Let it always be this way!
Little Spruce didn't even realize that her green branches were loved by others, because in winter they remind everyone of summer and warmth. And they smell wonderfully of pine needles and resin.
