Carol and Abel
In a large forest, overgrown with all kinds of leaf-bearing trees. Usually, it is cold this time of year and it even happens that it snow, but this November was pretty warm. If not the whole forest was full of fallen leaves. You might have thought it was summer. The leaves had been torn down by the rain, by the wind, some by day, some at night, and they now formed a deep carpet over the forest floor. Although their juices had run dry, the leaves still exuded a pleasant aroma. The sun shone down on them through the living branches, and worms and flies which had somehow survived the autumn storms crawled over them. The space beneath the leaves provided hiding places for crickets, field mice and many other creatures who sought…show more content… But you hand on!"
"What for?" Abel asked. "Without you, my life is senseless. If you fall, I'll fall with you."
"NO, Abel, don't do it! So long as a leaf can stay up it mustn't let go."
"It all depends if you stay with me," Abel replied. "By day I look at you and admire your beauty. At night I sense your fragrance. Be the only leaf on a tree? No never!"
"Abel, your words are so sweet but they're not true," Carol said. "You know very well that I'm no longer pretty. Look how wrinkled I am, how shriveled I've become! Only one thing is still left me－my love for you."
"Isn't that enough? Of all our powers love the highest, the finest," Abel said. "So long as we love each other we remain here, and no wind, rain or storm can destroy us. I'll tell you something, Carol－I never loved you as much as I love you now."
"Why, Abel? Why? I'm all yellow."
"Who says green is pretty and yellow is not? All colors are equally handsome."
And just as Abel spoke these words, that which Carol had feared all these months happened－a wind came up and tore Abel loose from the twig. Carol began to tremble and flutter until it seemed that she, too, would soon be torn away, but she held fast. She saw Abel fall and sway in the air, and she called to him in leafy language: "Abel! Come back! Abel!…show more content… But when it grew dark and cold and a piercing rain began to fall, she sank into despair. Somehow she felt that the blame for all the leafy misfortunes lay with the tree, the trunk with all its mighty limbs. Leaves fell, but the trunk stood tall, thick and firmly rooted in the ground. No wind, rain or hail could upset it. What did it matter to a tree, which probably lived forever, what become of a leaf? To Carol, the trunk was a kind of god. It covered itself with leaves for a few months, then it shook them off. It nourished them with its sap for as long as it pleased, then it let them die of thirst. Carol pleaded with the tree to give her back her Abel, to make it summer again, but the tree didn't heed her