potatoes and other supplies for the
winter. To his horror he found everything drooping and wilted and
withered. "What's the matter with the vegetables, gardener?" asked
Silly Will.

"A frost," sighed the gardener. "It's killed all the potatoes. I hope
you weren't depending on them?"

"Oh, of course not," said Silly Will, gulping hard. "I certainly
wouldn't depend on a vegetable. That would be too ridiculous. If the
frost should kill all the vegetables, it would make no difference to
me!" Nevertheless in his heart he felt unhappy and a little frightened
at the thought of the coming winter. But still he didn't understand.
Silly people never do understand.

He walked on down the road saying to himself, "I'll go order my winter
wood anyway. I'm almost out of it at home." Just then he looked up. He
expected to see the green forest stretching up the hillside. He stared.
The hillside was black smoking stumps, fallen blackened trees, white
ashes! Beside the dead trees stood the old forester wringing his hands.
Silly Will didn't even speak to him. He could see what had happened
without asking. He turned around. Slowly he walked home. He went right
to bed. He still pretended that he wasn't unhappy or frightened. He kept
saying to himself, "I don't really depend on the wood at all. Of course
that would be silly! I've got coal. It wouldn't matter to me if all the
plants left me." And with that thought he fell asleep. You see even now
he didn't understand. Silly people never do understand.

Now that night another strange thing happened to Silly Will. I can't
explain how or why it happened. But in the middle of the night all the
plants _did_ leave Silly Will,--not only the potatoes and the trees but
the whole vegetable kingdom.

He was asleep all curled up to keep warm in his cotton clothes. Suddenly
he felt the comforter and sheet under him jerk away and he was left
lying on the wire spring. At the same time the comforter and sheet over
him disappeared. So did his nightshirt. Then bang! His wooden bed was
gone. The house began to creak and rock. He jumped up and tore down
stairs. He just got outside the front door when the whole house
collapsed.

The moon was shining. Silly Will could see quite plainly. There stood
the brick chimneys rising out of a pile of plaster dumped on top of the
concrete foundations. There was the slate roof and the broken window of
glass. The air was full of a sound like the violent trembling of many