XI
THE DISAPPOINTED BUSH
Way down beside the Laughing Brook grew a little bush. It looked awhole lot like other little bushes all around it. But really it wasquite different, as you shall see. When in the spring warm, jolly,round Mr. Sun brought back the birds and set them singing, when thelittle flowers popped their heads out of the ground to have a lookaround, then all the little bushes put out their green leaves.
This little bush of which I am telling you put out its green leaveswith the rest. The little leaves grew bigger and bigger on all thelittle bushes. By and by on some of the other little bushes, littlebrown buds began to appear and grow and grow. Then on more and more ofthe little bushes the little brown buds came and grew and grew. But onthis little bush of which I am telling you no little brown budsappeared. The little bush felt very sad indeed.
Pretty soon all the little brown buds on the other little brown bushesburst their brown coats, and then all the little bushes were coveredwith little flowers. Some were white and some were yellow and somewere pink; and the air was filled with the sweet odor of all the littleflowers. It brought the bees from far, far away to gather the honey,and all the little bushes were very happy indeed.
But the little bush of which I am telling you had no little flowers,for you see it had had no little buds, and it felt lonely and shut awayfrom the other little bushes, and very sad indeed. But it bravely kepton growing and growing and growing. Its little leaves grew bigger andbigger and bigger, and it tried its best not to mind because it had nolittle flowers.
Then one by one, and two by two, and three by three, and finally inwhole showers, the little flowers of all the other little bushes felloff, and they looked very much like the little bush of which I amtelling you, so that the little bush no longer felt sad.
All summer long all the little bushes grew and grew and grew. Thebirds came and built their nests among them. Peter Rabbit and hisbrothers and sisters scampered under them. The butterflies flew overthem.
By and by came the fall, and with the fall came Jack Frost. He wentabout among the little bushes, pinching the leaves. Then the littlegreen leaves turned to brown and red and yellow and pretty soon theyfluttered down to the ground, the Merry Little Breezes blew them aboutand all the little bushes were bare. They had no leaves at all tocover their little naked brown limbs.
The little bush of which I am telling you lost its leaves with therest. But all the summer long this little bush had been growing someof those little brown buds, which the other bushes had had in thespring, and now, when all the other little bushes had lost all thegreen leaves, and had nothing at all upon their little brown twigs,behold! one beautiful day, the little bush of which I am telling youwas covered with gold, for each little brown bud had burst its littlebrown coat and there was a beautiful little yellow flower. Such amultitude of these little yellow flowers! They covered the little bushfrom top to bottom. Then the little bush felt very happy indeed, forit was the only bush which had any flowers. And every one who passedthat way stopped to look at it and to praise it.
Colder grew the weather and colder. Johnny Chuck tucked himself awayto sleep all winter. Grandfather Frog went deep, deep down in the mud,not to come out again until spring. By and by the little yellowflowers dropped off the little bush, just as the other little flowersin spring had dropped off the other bushes. But they left behind themtiny little packages, one for every little flower that had been on thebush. All winter long these little packages clung to the little bush.In the spring when the little leaves burst forth in all the littlebushes, these little packages on the little bush of which I am tellingyou grew and grew and grew. While the other little bushes had a lot oflittle flowers as they had had the year before, these little brownpackages 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 hadsomething worth while.
All the summer long the little brown packages grew and grew until theylooked like little nuts. When the fall came again and all the littleleaves dropped off all the little bushes, and the little bush of whichI am telling you was covered with another lot of little yellow flowersand was very happy, then these little brown nuts, one bright autumnday, suddenly popped open! And out of each one flew two brown shinylittle seeds. You never saw such a popping and a snapping and ajumping! Pop! pop! snap! snap! hippetty hop! they went, faster thanthe corn pops in the corn popper. Reddy Fox, who always is suspicious,thought some one was shooting at him. Down on the ground fell thelittle brown shining seeds and tucked themselves into the warm earthunder the warm leaves, there to stay all winter long.
And when the third spring came with all its little birds and all itslittle flowers and the warm sunshine, every one of these little brownseeds which had tucked themselves into the warm earth, burst its littlebrown skin, and up into the sunshine came a little green plant, whichwould grow and grow and grow, and by and by become just like the littlebush I am telling you about.
When the little bush looked down and saw all these little greenchildren popping out of the ground, it was very happy indeed, for itknew that it would no longer be lonely. It no longer felt bad when allthe other bushes were covered with flowers, for it knew that by and bywhen all the other little bushes had lost all their leaves and alltheir flowers, then would come its turn, and it knew that for a wholeyear its little brown children would be held safe on its branches.
Now, what do you think is the name of this little bush? Why, it is thewitch hazel. And sometime when you fall down and bump yourself hardgrandma will go to the medicine closet and will bring out a bottle, andfrom that bottle she will pour something on that little sore place andit will make it feel better. Do you know what it is? It is the giftof the witch hazel bush to little boys and big men to make them feelbetter when they are hurt.
Mother West Wind's Children Page 11
