comfortable, high in the hot air, and he said to his mother, "Mother-
tree, won't you let me go down by the Violet and be cool?"

Then the Maple-tree answered, "No, no, little leaf, not now; if I once
let you go, you can never come back again. Stay quietly here; the time
will soon come for you to leave me."

The Maple-leaf told this to the Violet, and then they began to fear
that when the mother-tree let him go, by and by, he might not be able
to fall close beside the Violet.

So the next day, when the wind came whistling along, the Violet asked
him if he would kindly take care of the leaf, and send him to her when
the mother-tree let him go. The wind was rough and careless, and said
he really didn't know. He couldn't be sure how he'd feel then. They
would have to wait and see.

The two little friends were rather unhappy about this, but they waited
quietly. By and by the weather grew cold. The air was so chill that
the Maple-leaf shivered in the night, and in the morning, when the sun
rose, and he could see himself, he found he was all red, just as your
hands and cheeks are on a frosty morning. When the mother-tree saw
him, she told him he would soon leave her now, and she bade him good-
by. He was sorry to go, but then he thought of his dear Violet, and
was happy again.

By and by a gust of cold wind came blowing by, and twisted the little
leaf about, and fluttered him so that he could not hold to the tree
any longer. So at last he blew off, and the wind took him up and
danced with him and played with him until he was very tired and dizzy.