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around her was cold and she was small and weak . It was difficult for her to draw her food out of her roots in the morning after sleepless nights shivering with the cold. The night looked at her with pity and put a big dark coat tenderly over the little tree which was fighting for survival with all its sisters and brothers.
In the morning the sky stayed cloudy more often, the sun did not show his face and the trees could not turn the air into the stuff that fed their leaves. They need the sunlight to cook this complicated meal.

It was autumn now and her mother and all the other trees along the river bank threw off their leaves. The wind howled, painted them brown, gold and red and asked the trees to dance with him. But Birkina was afraid to lose her three leaves, although they did not get anymore food and were already yellow and dry. She held onto them tight and tried to stem herself against the wind, but he simply bent her and pinned her to the ground. Frightened, she cried for help, while the storm laughed with his deep loud voice.
"Hahaha, this tiny Beech wants to be stronger than me! What a joke, I just flatten you, you little Bigmouth!" He continued to blow over her, to press her to the ground and Birkina trembled under his cold breath.
"Dance with the wind!" her mother called, "you are as strong as he is if you bend with him. Let go of your leaves, you will have new ones next year, if you keep the old ones, you will freeze to death!"
Finally, Birkina realized that her mother was right, after she had received some brutal blows from the autumn storms. Her older siblings showed her how to dance with the wind and soon she started to like it, even though her partner was a little rough sometimes. She shed her leaves and felt ready for the winter.
"A proud Beech bows to the wind but will always get up and stand straight again." said her mother and smiled.
But the rain, now as icy as the storms still bothered her a lot. Sometimes it rained so much that the little tree nearly drowned in the icy puddle around her. She cried for help and scolded the rain who was so wet and cold. The other young trees laughed at Birkina and called her "our delicate lady", because she was so fragile.
After a whole week of non-stop rain and no wind to blow the water away, Birkina could not stand the water around her any longer. She became ill, was coughing and shivering with fever. The big Beech looked at her daughter and was very worried. She did not know what to do to help. "Please, dear

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