Umbrella Tree
“But I am afraid,” the little girl said.
“Why?” said the tree.
“Because the world is so very big, and I so very small.”
“We are all small when compared with the world, and one’s size does not matter when compared to the strength of one’s heart.”
“But the sun is so very hot, and the day so very bright.”
“Then sit below my branches when you are weary, and I will shade you from the sun until your strength returns.”
“But the weather is so terrible at times. What if it blows me away, and I am lost to the wind?”
“Then sit below my branches when the wind gusts and the rain falls in sheets, and I will shelter you from the storm until fair weather returns.”
“But what of the night? It is so dark, and filled with so many horrors.”
“Then sit within my branches, and I will shelter you from the beasts that prowl in the darkness.”
“You would do all that?”
“Yes.”
“But why?”
“For the same reason the sun is hot, the weather wild, and the night dark—it is my nature, and that is a great comfort.”
“Yes,” said the little girl. “It is indeed.”
