Tell Me Another Story Part 42

If you had walked through the woods that winter, you would have said that the acorn was gone. But spring came and called to all the sleeping things underground to waken and come forth. The acorn heard and tried to move, but the brown sh.e.l.l held it fast. Some raindrops trickled through the ground to moisten the sh.e.l.l, and one day the pus.h.i.+ng life within set it free. The brown sh.e.l.l was of no more use and was lost in the ground, but the young plant lived. It heard voices of birds calling it upward. It must grow. "A new and glorious life,"

the mother oak had said.

"I must arise," the acorn thought, and up the living plant came, up into the world of suns.h.i.+ne and beauty. It looked around. There was the same green moss in the woods; it could hear the same singing brook.

"Now I know that I shall live and grow," it said.

"Yes," rustled the mother oak, "you are now an oak tree. This is your real life."

And the little oak tree was glad, and stretched higher and higher toward the sun.

BOOKS BY CAROLYN SHERWIN BAILEY

DAILY PROGRAM OF GIFT AND OCCUPATION WORK

FOR THE CHILDREN'S HOUR

FIRELIGHT STORIES

STORIES AND RHYMES FOR A CHILD

SONGS OF HAPPINESS

FOR THE STORY TELLER

EVERY CHILD'S FOLK SONGS AND GAMES

STORIES CHILDREN NEED

TELL ME ANOTHER STORY