A long time ago when the world was still forming and Mother Nature was experimenting with many ideas, there were many forests filled with the most beautiful trees. In those days, groups of trees were always competing with one another to see which type of tree was the most beautiful. While the displays were simply stunning and grew more stunning each year, the competitions were becoming too fierce and the trees were becoming more and more clan-like, growing only with their own kind. This vexed Nature quite a bit because she was far too busy to start the design of trees all over again.
In this competitive arena, there
were two groups that stood out the most:
The pine trees and the oak trees.
Each group competed fiercely with the other, and as luck would have it,
the two groups bordered one another.
While all the displays were beautiful, anyone who had eyes could see
that the pine trees always had the most fantastic displays because of their
odd, rainbow-colored flowers. Nothing
could beat those beautiful blooms.
Now it happened that on the edge
of each group, a young tree grew. While
the larger trees were busy arguing and competing, these two trees became
friends, which was unusual in those days.
Daily their friendship grew and often they would run off together to be
alone, and in those days, trees could do that kind of thing because their roots
were much more nimble. Eventually, the
two trees fell very much in love, and while this might have made other
creatures happy, the little trees were afraid because they didn’t know what the
big trees would say.
 |
| Pine cones from the white pine, the official state tree of Maine. |
But you can’t hide love forever no
matter how hard you try, and eventually a nosey squirrel found the two lovers
out and broadcast the news on the lightning-fast squirrel network. By the end of the day, the entire world
knew. The pine tree and oak tree groups
were furious and called the two trees out to stand before them both so they
could put an end to it. Terrible things
were said and tempers were hot, but the two little trees would not budge from one
another.
“I love him!” said the little pine
tree of the little oak.
“He is ugly and his hard little
acorns are useless!” the other pines shouted.
“I love her!” said the little oak
tree of the pine.
“She is vain and her bristly
needles are scratchy!” the other oaks shouted.
No matter what the two said, no
matter how each extolled the virtue of the other, the big trees became nastier
and ruder. Finally, Nature had reached
her limit with all the noise. She
ordered the little pine and the little oak to each return to its own
group. Now here is where things get very
strange, because the little trees refused and no one had ever dared refuse a
command from Nature.
No one would ever dare refuse again either, I
can tell you that. Nature was angry and
threw her hands into the air! She called
terrible storms upon all the trees, so terrible that each tree dug its feet
deeply into the soil for protection. The
leaves were battered on the trees, and the landscape grew barren and cold. Then snow and ice came and froze everything,
but still the two little trees would not relent. At last Nature calmed down. She was impressed with the strength and love
of the two little trees, and she also secretly feared a mutiny. She did not want to start all over again with
the trees, not while she was busy trying to make two-legged creatures, who apparently were not very bright.
“I will love him forever and I
will not leave him,” said the little pine tree.
“I will adore her always and will
follow wherever she goes,” said the little oak tree.
“Very well,” said Mother Nature,
her patience thin but holding. “I will
grant you your wish that you may be together.
But in return so that you remember my kindness,” she said to the little
pine tree, “you will no longer bear rainbow-colored flowers. Instead your flowers will be bristly little
cones so that you remember your stubbornness.”
Then she turned to the little oak tree and said, “Each fall you will
lose all of your leaves and go into a deathly and cold slumber for the winter
so that you will remember that I make this world as I choose.”
With that, she left all the trees
to their own devices. Their feet were
now so firmly rooted in the soil that they could not walk around anymore. Their competitions were cancelled while they
were busy getting used to their new restrictions. It turns out that they never did hold another
competition, though, because the first real autumn hit the world then. The days grew short and cold, and the trees
all lost their leaves. Soon the little
pine tree was left holding the cold hand of a bare oak tree. Since she had no leaves but needles instead,
she remained stubbornly green, a bit of an oversight by Nature.
“When it is late fall,” she said
to the silent little oak tree, “I will pine for you. When it is the dead cold of winter, I will
pine for you. When it is the early wet
and dark spring, still I will pine for you.”
And every year she did what she
said she would do. This is why you
always find pine trees and oak trees growing together. It’s why there are no longer competitions but
all the trees are considered beautiful.
It’s how trees became so patient because of their entrenched feet. And it’s why the pine tree alone remains
green in the winter and pines away for her lover until spring brings him back.
