This story is part of a series of little reading lessons prepared for young children. The object of the lessons is three-fold: to provide reading matter for the little ones who have only a small vocabulary of sight-words; to acquaint them early with the characters who were introduced to us in song and story; and to create a desire for literature.

pine - leaves - other
woods - needles - better
fairy - gold - sleep

A little pine tree was in the woods.

It had no leaves. It had needles.

The little tree said, "I do not like needles. All the other trees in
the woods have pretty leaves. I want leaves, too. But I will have
better leaves. I want gold leaves."

Night came and the little tree went to sleep. A fairy came by and gave
it gold leaves.

* * * * * * *

woke - cried - glass
little - again - pretty - night

When the little tree woke it had leaves of gold.

It said, "Oh, I am so pretty! No other tree has gold leaves."

Night came.

A man came by with a bag. He saw the gold leaves. He took them all and
put them into his bag.

The poor little tree cried, "I do not want gold leaves again. I will
have glass leaves."

* * * * * * *

sunshine - bright
looked - wind - blew

So the little tree went to sleep. The fairy came by and put the glass
leaves on it.

The little tree woke and saw its glass leaves.

How pretty they looked in the sunshine! 'No other tree was so bright.

Then a wind came up. It blew and blew.

The glass leaves all fell from the tree and were broken.

* * * * *

again - green
goat - hungry

Again the little tree had no leaves. It was very sad, and said, "I
will not have gold leaves and I will not have glass leaves. I want
green leaves. I want to be like the other trees."

And the little tree went to sleep. When it woke, it was like other
trees. It had green leaves.

A goat came by. He saw the green leaves on the little tree. The
goat was hungry and he ate all the leaves.

* * * * *

happy - best

Then the little tree said, "I do not want any leaves. I will not
have green leaves, nor glass leaves, nor gold leaves. I like my
needles best."

And the little tree went to sleep. The fairy gave it what it wanted.

When it woke, it had its needles again. Then the little pine tree
was happy.