ARBOR DAY Good stories for great holidays : arranged for story-telling and
reading aloud and for the children's own reading | ||
WHY THE ASPEN QUIVERS OLD LEGEND
LONG, long ago, so the legend says, when Joseph and Mary and the Holy Babe fled out of Bethlehem into Egypt, they passed through the green wildwood. And flowers and trees and plants bent their heads in reverence.
But the proud aspen held its head high and refused even to look at the Holy Babe. In vain the birds sang in the aspen's branches, entreating it to gaze for one moment at the wonderful One; the proud tree still held its head erect in scorn.
Then outspake Mary, his mother. “O aspen
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But the aspen could not answer. A strange shivering passed through its stem and along its boughs, which set its leaves a-quivering. It trembled before the Holy Babe.
And so from age to age, even unto this day, the proud aspen shakes and shivers.
ARBOR DAY Good stories for great holidays : arranged for story-telling and
reading aloud and for the children's own reading | ||