The First Leaf Whistle — At the edge of Harvest Hollow, a young tree set himself a challenge: before the pumpkin at his roots turned fully orange, he would answer the valley wind. Read the full story →
At the edge of Harvest Hollow, a young tree set himself a challenge: before the pumpkin at his roots turned fully orange, he would answer the valley wind. Each evening the wind slid over the hills with a hush-hush sound, slipping between his branches and tugging at his leaves. Orin held tight. The sound made his bark prickle like cold rain.
One silver dusk, a fox kit left a tiny bone whistle under the pumpkin vine and vanished into the grass. Orin wanted to know its secret. When the wind came, he loosened one leaf—just one—and let it spin past the whistle’s hollow mouth. “Whee?” sang the air. Orin trembled, then let three more leaves go. Whee-ee-ee! The valley answered from every little wood.
Ever since, autumn trees drop leaves to teach the wind its music. If you follow the curling leaves around Orin’s roots, can you find the first brave whistle?
