_The Bird_. "What should I do? No one wants to help me. Can I not find one kind tree? Dear kind Willow, your branches bend almost to the ground. Could I live in them until the spring-time?" _Willow_. "Really, little Bird with the broken wing, you are a stranger. You should have gone with the other birds. Maybe some other tree can help you but we willows are particular." _The Bird_. "I do not know where to go and I'm so cold! I wonder if the other birds have reached the beautiful warm South." _Spruce_. "Little Bird, little Bird, where are you going?" _The Bird_. "I do not know. I am very cold." _Spruce_. "Come, make a big hop and rest in this snug corner of my branches. You can stay with me all winter if you like." _The Bird_. "You are so good, dear Spruce-tree. Will you really let me?" _Spruce_. "If your friends the birds have left you, your other friends, the trees, will surely help you. Ho, Pine-tree, you would help a little Bird with a broken wing, wouldn't you?" _Pine_. "Oh, yes, dear Bird! My branches are not wide but I am tall and thick, and I will keep the cold North Wind from you." _Juniper_. "And maybe I can help. Are you hungry, little Bird? You can eat my nice little berries whenever you like." _The Bird_. "Thank you, kind friends! I will go to sleep now on this nice branch of the Spruce-tree, Good-night, dear Trees." _Spruce, Pine, and Juniper_. "Good-night, little Bird." _North Wind. "Oo_,--_Oo_!--Now I must run in and out among all the trees of the forest.--But who comes here?" _Frost King_. "Stop, North Wind! I have just gone before you, as King Winter said, and touched the trees of the forest. But the trees that have been kind to the Bird with the broken wing, those I did not touch. They shall keep their leaves. Do not you harm them!" _North Wind_. "Very well, King Frost. Good-bye! _Oo_!--Oo!--" (The Wind frolics among the Trees, bending branches, careering wildly, shaking leaves.) "Little Spruce-tree, you have been kind to the Bird, I will not blow on you! Dear Pine-tree, you are tall and keep the Bird warm, I will not blow on you! Little Juniper, you gave the Bird your berries, I will not blow on you!" _(The following morning_.) _The Bird_. "Good-morning, dear Spruce-tree, your branch was warm and safe.--Why, what has happened to the other Trees? Look at the big Oak and the lovely Maple and all the rest! See how bare their branches are; and on the ground their shining leaves lie in red and yellow and brown heaps! O, how glad I am that your leaves have not fallen; they are bright and green! And so are Pine-tree's and Juniper's. I will call you my Evergreen Trees, and I will stay with you until the Spring!"