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The Legend of the Aspen
by
Harry Buschman
(An Indian Legend)
Out here in the west we call them quaking aspens. They're lovely trees,
fine limbed with a silvery bark and birch-like leaves. In the gentlest
breeze the leaves flutter like feathers. Sometimes you can see whole
hillsides of them flickering yellow in the spring, green in the summer
and red as fire in the fall.
You can even hear whole forests of them in Yellowstone, yes hear! When
the wind blows you can hear them whispering as though you were riffling
the pages of a book.
There's an old Cherokee legend that tells of a time before man, when
the earth was young. The Great Spirit wanted all the trees to stay awake
for seven days and seven nights until the world was made. Only the
strongest of them could stay awake -- the laurel, the cedar and the spruce.
They were granted the gift of being evergreen forever, the others had
to shed their leaves and sleep through the long winter's night of
creation.
The aspen, although it tried very hard, could not stay awake. It's
prayers could be heard throughout the forest as it quivered in fear, it
even changed its leaves from green to gold and russet to appease the Great
Spirit. But sadly it fell asleep and down came its leaves. From that
day to this the aspen must lie dormant in the winter and stretch its
naked limbs to the sky waiting for spring to come.
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