Никоненко Тамара Петрівна

   A little fir-tree stood near an old oak. It was a fine little tree, but it was sad. One day it said, “The oak-tree has leaves. I have only needles. The birds do not make nests in a fir-tree. I want to have leaves, not needles”.
   The next day it had green leaves and was happy. But a goat came to the tree and ate up all the green leaves.
   The fir-tree was sad again and said, “I want to have gold leaves”. The next day it had gold leaves and was happy. But a man came and took all the gold leaves.
   The fir-tree was sad again and said, “I want glass leaves”. The next day it had glass leaves and was happy again. But the wind blew and broke all the glass leaves.
   The little fir-tree was very sad and said, “I do not like gold leaves. Men take them. I do not like green leaves. Goats eat them. I do not like glass leaves. The wind breaks them. I want to have my needles again. Goats do not eat them, men do not take them, the wind cannot break them”.
   The next morning it had all its needles again.