am
telling you, so that the little bush no longer felt sad.

All summer long all the little bushes grew and grew and grew. The
birds came and built their nests among them. Peter Rabbit and his
brothers and sisters scampered under them. The butterflies flew over
them.

By and by came the fall, and with the fall came Jack Frost. He went
about among the little bushes, pinching the leaves. Then the little
green leaves turned to brown and red and yellow and pretty soon they
fluttered down to the ground, the Merry Little Breezes blew them about
and all the little bushes were bare. They had no leaves at all to
cover their little naked brown limbs.

The little bush of which I am telling you lost its leaves with the
rest. But all the summer long this little bush had been growing some
of those little brown buds, which the other bushes had had in the
spring, and now, when all the other little bushes had lost all the
green leaves, and had nothing at all upon their little brown twigs,
behold! one beautiful day, the little bush of which I am telling you
was covered with gold, for each little brown bud had burst its little
brown coat and there was a beautiful little yellow flower. Such a
multitude of these little yellow flowers! They covered the little bush
from top to bottom. Then the little bush felt very happy indeed, for
it was the only bush which had any flowers. And every one who passed
that way stopped to look at it and to praise it.

Colder grew the weather and colder. Johnny Chuck tucked himself away
to sleep all winter. Grandfather Frog went deep, deep down in the mud,
not to come out again until spring. By and by the little yellow
flowers dropped off the little bush, just as the other little flowers
in spring had dropped off the other bushes. But they left behind them
tiny little packages, one for every little flower that had been on the
bush. All winter long these little packages clung to the little bush.
In the spring when the little leaves burst forth in all the little
bushes, these little packages on the little bush of which I am telling
you grew and grew and grew. While the other little bushes had a lot of
little flowers as they had had the year before, these little brown
packages on the little bush of which I am telling you kept on growing.
And they comforted the little bush because it felt that it really had
something worth while.

All the summer long the little brown packages grew and grew unt