当艾比的第一部儿童故事出版时，面对友人们的阅评，她有些羞赧。因为在她看来，自己的这些文字并不值得出版。

然而，艾比的作品收到了良好的反响。和她后来的一系列著作一样，所有的故事都充满了自然风光、瑰丽的幻想与无穷的乐趣。

艾比现在居住在临近波士顿的地方，而且开始涉足成人文学的创作。

1. A Maple Tree awoke at springtime, shivering in the east winds. “O Mother Nature,” she said, “I tremble with cold. Behold my limbs, ugly and bare. The birds are all coming back from the South, and I would look my best. They will soon be building their nests. O, a bird'snest does make a tree so pleasant! But they will not come to me, because I have no leaves to hide them!”

2. And kind Mother Nature smiled, and presented her daughter Maple with such multitudes of leaves! More than you could count! These gave beauty to the tree, besides keeping the rain out of the bird's nests. For birds had quickly come to build there, and there was reason to expect a lively summer.

3. A happy MapleTree now was she, and well pleased with her pretty green leaves. They were so beautiful in the sunlight; and the winds whispered such sweet things to them as to make them dance for joy! A pair of golden robins had a home there, and thrushes came often. Sunshine and song all day long! Or if the little leaves became hot and thirsty in the summer's heat, good Mother Nature gave them cooling raindrops to drink. A happier MapleTree could nowhere be found.

4. “Thanks! thanks, Mother Nature,” she said, “for all your care and your loving kindness to me! ”

But when autumn came with its gloomy skies and its chilling winds, the MapleTree grew sad, for she heard her little leaves saying to each other, “We are going to die! We are going to die! ”