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tallest one said:

"Let us make them divide the gift of fire with us."

"No," said the oldest, wisest oak, "we must not risk, foolishly, the
lives of our acorns. We could do nothing against so many."

All the acorns had been listening to what the tree said. Each one longed
to help in finding out the great secret.

One of them became so excited that he fell from the limb, down upon the
hard ground. He did not stop at the foot of the tree, but rolled over
and over, far down into the valley.

Here a brook picked him up and hurried him away; but as he stopped to
rest by a stone, he heard his good friend, the wind, talking to a pine
tree.

"What is the secret of fire which the pine trees know?" asked the wind.
"Don't you think it is selfish to keep it all to yourselves?"

The pine tree loved the wind and answered:

"Great wind, it is, indeed, a wonderful secret; you must never tell it."
Then she whispered it to the wind.

The little acorn went on and on down the stream.

He came to an old log, which was the home of a large family of
squirrels. The mother squirrel was very sad. The last flood had brought
her and her children far away from her old forest home. Her family had
all been saved, but food was scarce and winter was near.

The acorn felt very sorry for her and said:

"I am too small to do you much good alone. If you will carry me back to
my home, I will show you a forest with plenty of nuts. You can take your
family there in the fall."

This the squirrel was very glad to do.

As they went along the acorn called to all the elms, maples, willows
and hickories to meet that night on the hilltop.

"Come to the hill across from the great blue mountains," he said. "There
you will learn the secret of fire."

By evening they were all there, in great companies, ready for war on the
pines.

When the squirrel came to the forest and saw all the nuts she was much
pleased.

She offered to carry the acorn to the very top of the tallest tree. The
trees were all glad of this, for every one wanted to hear what he said.

When the acorn began to speak, even the wind stopped whispering and
listened.

"Friends," he said, "there must be no battle. The pine trees have only
the same gift of fire that you have. To every tree that stretches out
its arms the glorious sun gives this gift. But it was in this way that
the pine trees learned the secret of getting the fire from the wood:
They saw an old Indian chief with t