<Tr> <Th> Published in </Th> <Td> "The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories" </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Publication date </Th> <Td> 1907 </Td> </Tr> <P> "The Last Leaf" is a short story by O. Henry published in 1907 in his collection The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories . </P> <P> The story is set in Greenwich Village during a pneumonia epidemic . It tells the story of an old artist who saves the life of a young artist, dying of pneumonia, by giving her the will to live . She can see an ivy plant through the window gradually losing its leaves, and has taken it into her head that she will die when the last leaf falls . Seemingly, it never does fall, and she survives . We learn that in reality the vine lost all its leaves . What she thought she saw was a leaf, painted on the wall with perfect realism, by the old artist . The old artist dies of pneumonia contracted while being out in the wet and cold, painting the last leaf. The old artist who saves the girl is the great Behrman . </P>

What is the meaning of the last leaf