d him, something in the way
of one seed or another.

"Is that true?" said the willow-tree. "Yes, of course it's true. So I
really owe all my happiness to you!"

"Probably," said the blackbird and whistled with a very consequential
air. "We all of us have our mission in this world, thank goodness....
But just look: as I live, there's a beautiful ripe strawberry!"

He ate the strawberry and said, "Hum!" and "Ha!" and "Ho!" for it was so
nice:

"It's just as good as those which grow in the squire's own beds," he
said. "But I almost think it has got a still nicer flavour by growing up
here in you, you old Willow-Tree."

"My dear Blackbird," said the strawberry-plant, "you're often at the
manor-house. Won't you do me the favour to tell the squire that I am
growing up here?"

"That I will certainly not do," said the blackbird. "In the first place,
nothing would induce me to tell any one else where a good berry grows.
In the second place, I have been getting so stout and fat lately that I
must be a bit careful. Otherwise, it might occur to the squire that
strawberries taste twice as nice on top of roast blackbird."

"That's very tiresome," said the strawberry-plant. "I know that the
squire has said he will eat no other berries than those which grow in
our family; and there are so very few of us. I also heard a bird sing
that he had come home from Italy; and I am sure that, if he knew I grew
up here, he would himself climb up and pick my berries."

"Lord preserve us!" said the willow-tree. "Would the squire himself
really climb into my top? That honour would be greater than I could
bear!"

"It certainly would," said the oak. "For you are growing hollower every
day. Your long branches are not so green this year as last. You are
beginning to look more and more like my unhappy uncle. You're
approaching your end, Willow-Tree."

"You may be right," said the willow-tree. "We must all undergo our
lot. I myself feel that my shell is getting thinner and thinner; and it
has holes in it, besides, in two places down below."

"Away with him!" said the nearest poplar. "He's a disgrace and a
reproach to our family."

"Away with him!... Away ... away ... away!" whispered the poplars along
the avenue.

9

Time passed and it was incredible that the old willow-tree should still
be alive.

[Illustration]

His bark had fallen off in great pieces and the holes below had joined
in the middle, so that, one day, the fox was abl