The Leaflets' Secret

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23767, 21 September 1940, Page 3 (Supplement)

The Leaflets' Secret

iDEAR BOYS AND GIRLS,— HAVE you'noticed how many little green leaf>buds are appearing at the tips of the bare, grey branches of the trees now? Everywhere we go there is the lovely fresh Spring green to be seen and the oak trees make a beautiful picture with their new foliage. Grey Malcolm told me a secret about the tiny, curly leaf babies.- We were •wandering about in the garden,admiring the pretty poppy ladies nodding in the breeze and the first prim pink tulips opening to the sun. For a while we stood gazing down at the creek where the willows were all arrayed in their green gowns again, and it was then that my old puss told me the secret of the baby leaves. It seems that in the Autumn when the leaflets are all dressed in their gay .dresses they become so tired with their many dances in the wind that they have to rest during the Winter to make up for all the long days and nights of lost ; sleep. And in the bleak Winter months while they quietly sleep the mother-trees are busy making them bright, new, green dresses in place of the tattered gowns • that were ripped and torn in their play with the boisterous breeze fairies. When the aiy grows warmer and the Spring days come again, all the wee 'leaflets begin to yawn and uncurl, and soon "they find themselves all clothed in "lovely new frocks of the latest style in leafland fashions. So, boys and girls, that •is why the leaf children love to show off their smart green frocks when the ,»un shines down on the garden—or, at least, that is what Grey Malcolm thinks; and he seems to know all about it, for he .spends ever so much of his time away up in the thick foliage of the trees! * f Some of the entries for the Spring * m \\ . VI & I Gjj' ' .competition are truly delightful, and still II I- # Q • more are coming in each day. Don't for- ftlvw / [get, next Friday' is the closing day, boys I , V ; »nd girls. , Love to you all, and happy days of .sunshine, from ,