le.

Then came foreign soldiers in bright armour and gay vestments, bearing
spurs and halberds, setting up their tents, and presently taking them
down again. Then watch-fires blazed up and bands of wild outlaws sang,
revelled, and slept under the tree's outstretched boughs; or happy
lovers met in quiet moonlight and carved their initials on the grayish
bark.

At one time a guitar and an AEolian harp had been hung among the old
oak's boughs by merry travelling apprentices; now they hung there again,
and the wind played sweetly with their strings.

And now the dream changed. A new and stronger current of life flowed
through him, down to his lowest roots, up to his highest twigs, even to
the very leaves. The tree felt in his roots that a warm life stirred in
the earth, and that he was growing taller and taller; his trunk shot up
more and more, his crown grew fuller; and still he soared and spread.
He felt that his power grew, too, and he longed to advance higher and
higher to the warm, bright sun.

Already he towered above the clouds, which drifted below him, now like a
troop of dark-plumaged birds of passage, now like flocks of large, white
swans. The stars became visible by daylight, so large and bright, each
one sparkling like a mild, clear eye.

It was a blessed moment! and yet, in the height of his joy, the oak tree
felt a desire and longing that all the other trees, bushes, herbs, and
flowers of the wood might be lifted up with him to share in his glory
and gladness. He could not be fully blessed unless he might have all,
small and great, blessed with him.

The tree's crown bowed itself as though it had missed something, and
looked backward. Then he felt the fragrance of honeysuckle and violets,
and fancied he could hear the birds. And so it was! for now peeped forth
through the clouds the green summits of the wood; the other trees below
had grown and lifted themselves up likewise; bushes and herbs shot high
into the air, some tearing themselves loose from their roots to mount
the faster.

Like a flash of white lightning the birch, moving fastest of all, shot
upward its slender stem. Even the feathery brown reeds had pierced their
way through the clouds, and the birds sang and sang, and on the grass
that fluttered to and fro like a streaming ribbon perched the
grasshopper, while cockchafers hummed and bees buzzed. All was music and
gladness.

"But the little blue flower near the water--I want that, too," sa