Page 88 - Viva Real English 2 : Ebook

11 The Discontented Fir Tree

A fir tree grew in a thick forest. It had dark green needles. Its trunk was thick

and straight. The wind sang a song when it moved through its branches.

One day it looked at the leaves of the other trees. These had different shapes:
round, oval, narrow and broad.

The fir tree looked sadly at its needles
and said, ‘My needles are not proper
leaves. They are stiff and sharp. They

are not like the leaves of other trees.
I wish I had leaves of gold.’

A wood-fairy heard its sad words. She

touched its boughs with her magic
wand. The next morning the needles of

the fir tree had changed into shining
gold leaves. It was very happy but its
happiness did not last long.

A robber came and started plucking all
the gold leaves from the fir tree. The
fir tree begged, ‘Please don’t take my

gold leaves.’ The robber replied, ‘I’ll
sell the leaves and buy food for my

family.’ Then he ran away with all the
gold leaves.

The fir tree started weeping. It looked

ugly without the gold leaves. It sobbed,
‘I wish I had sparkling glass leaves. They will shine in the sunlight. I will look
like a tree of light.’

stiff : difficult to bend or move sparkling : shining brightly

boughs : a large branch of a tree
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