The Evergreen and the Sky-Full-of-Stars

In a mist-hung grove below a small mountain hermitage, an impatient young novice overhears two trees talking, one covered in a cloud of pale blossom, the other plain and dark-leaved, and through the turning of a single year he learns from his old teacher that true worth is shown not in a fortnight of admiration but in the long, quiet keeping of oneself through frost.