a circle round
the blazing pile. I lay quite quiet," said the Wind, "but I silently
touched a branch which had been brought by one of the handsomest of
the young men, and the wood blazed up brightly, blazed brighter than
all the rest. Then he was chosen as the chief, and received the name
of the Shepherd; and might choose his lamb from among the maidens.
There was greater mirth and rejoicing than I had ever heard in the
halls of the rich baronial house. Then the noble lady drove by towards
the baron's mansion with her three daughters, in a gilded carriage
drawn by six horses. The daughters were young and beautiful--three
charming blossoms--a rose, a lily, and a white hyacinth. The mother
was a proud tulip, and never acknowledged the salutations of any of
the men or maidens who paused in their sport to do her honor. The
gracious lady seemed like a flower that was rather stiff in the stalk.
Rose, lily, and hyacinth--yes, I saw them all three. Whose little
lambs will they one day become? thought I; their shepherd will be a
gallant knight, perhaps a prince. The carriage rolled on, and the
peasants resumed their dancing. They drove about the summer through
all the villages near. But one night, when I rose again, the high-born
lady lay down to rise again no more; that thing came to her which
comes to us all, in which there is nothing new. Waldemar Daa
remained for a time silent and thoughtful. 'The loftiest tree may be
bowed without being broken,' said a voice within him. His daughters
wept; all the people in the mansion wiped their eyes, but Lady Daa had
driven away, and I drove away too," said the Wind. "Whir-r-r,
whir-r-r-!

"I returned again; I often returned and passed over the island
of Funen and the shores of the Belt. Then I rested by Borreby, near
the glorious wood, where the heron made his nest, the haunt of the
wood-pigeons, the blue-birds, and the black stork. It was yet
spring, some were sitting on their eggs, others had already hatched
their young broods; but how they fluttered about and cried out when
the axe sounded through the forest, blow upon blow! The trees of the
forest were doomed. Waldemar Daa wanted to build a noble ship, a
man-of-war, a three-decker, which the king would be sure to buy; and
these, the trees of the wood, the landmark of the seamen, the refuge
of the birds, must be felled. The hawk started up and flew away, for
its nest was destroyed; the heron and all the birds of the forest
became