How, hundreds of years ago. And she always lets man conquer her,
because Lady Why wishes man to conquer: only he must have a fair fight
with Madam How first, and try his strength against hers to the utmost. So
man conquered the wood for a while; and it became cornfield instead of
forest: but he was not strong and wise enough three hundred years ago to
keep what he had conquered; and back came Madam How, and took the place
into her own hands, and bade the old forest trees and plants come back
again--as they would come if they were not stopped year by year, down
from the wood, over the pastures--killing the rich grasses as they went,
till they met another forest coming up from below, and fought it for many
a year, till both made peace, and lived quietly side by side for ages.

Another forest coming up from below? Where would it come from?

From where it is now. Come down and look along the brook, and every
drain and grip which runs into the brook. What is here?

Seedling alders, and some withies among them.

Very well. You know how we pull these alders up, and cut them down, and
yet they continually come again. Now, if we and all human beings were to
leave this pasture for a few hundred years, would not those alders
increase into a wood? Would they not kill the grass, and spread right
and left, seeding themselves more and more as the grass died, and left
the ground bare, till they met the oaks and beeches coming down the hill?
And then would begin a great fight, for years and years, between oak and
beech against alder and willow.

But how can trees fight? Could they move or beat each other with their
boughs?

Not quite that; though they do beat each other with their boughs,
fiercely enough, in a gale of wind; and then the trees who have strong
and stiff boughs wound those who have brittle and limp boughs, and so
hurt them, and if the storms come often enough, kill them. But among
these trees in a sheltered valley the larger and stronger would kill the
weaker and smaller by simply overshadowing their tops, and starving their
roots; starving them, indeed, so much when they grow very thick, that the
poor little acorns, and beech mast, and alder seeds would not be able to
sprout at all. So they would fight, killing each other's children, till
the war ended--I think I can guess how.

How?

The beeches are as dainty as they are beautiful; and they do not like to
get their feet wet. So they would venture dow