in the forest I fell into a trap and was caught by some men who put
me in a cage so that people could come to see me."

"Ever been shut up in a cage?" queried the Poker at this point.

"No," said Tom, "only in a dark closet."

"Never had to stay shut up, though, more than ten minutes, did you?"

"No," answered Tom, "never."

"Well, think of me cooped up in an old cage for two weeks!" said the
Poker. "That was woe enough for a lifetime, but it wasn't half what I had
altogether. The other creatures in the Zoo growled and shrieked all night
long; none of us ever got a quarter enough to eat, and several times the
monkey in the cage next to me would reach his long arm into my prison and
yank out half a dozen of my feathers at once. In fact, I had nothing but
mishaps all the time. As the poet says:

"Talk about your troubles,
Talk about your woes,
Yours are only bubbles,
Sir, compared with those.

"At the end of two weeks I was nearly frantic. I don't think I could have
stood it another week--but fortunately at the end of the month back came
the Fairy again.

"'How do you like being an eagle?' she said.

"'I'd rather be a tree rooted to the ground in the midst of a dense forest
than all the eagles in the world,' said I.

"'Very well,' said she. 'It shall be so. Good-night.'

"In the morning I was a tree--and if there is anything worse than being a
dog or an eagle it's being a tree," said the Poker. "I could hear
processions going by with fine bands of music in the distance, but I
couldn't stir a step to see them. Boys would come along and climb up into
my branches and shake me nearly to pieces. Cows came and chewed up my
leaves, and one day the wood-cutters came and were just about to cut me
down when the Fairy appeared again and sent them away.

"'They will be back again tomorrow,' she said. 'Do you wish to remain a
tree?'

"'No, no, no,' I cried. 'I'll be content to be anything you choose if you
will save me from them.'

"'There,' she said. 'That's the point. If you will keep that promise you
will finally be happy. If you will only look on the bright side of things,
remembering the pleasant and forgetting the unpleasant, you will be happy.
If you will be satisfied with what you are and have and not go about
swelling up with envy whenever you see anyone or anything that has or can
do things that you have not or cannot do, you will be happy in spite of
yourself. Will you promise me this?