There was once a beautiful wood, filled with thousands of slender trunks and with singing and whispering in her dark tree-tops.  
She was surrounded by field and meadow; and there the farmer had built his house. And field and meadow were good and green; and the farmer was hard-working and grateful for the crops which he brought home. But the wood stood like a lady of the , high above them all.
 
In the winter-time the fields lay flat and , the meadow was merely one great lake with ice upon it and the farmer sat in the chimney-corner; but the wood just stood straight and with her bare branches and let the weather storm and snow as it pleased. In the spring, both meadow and field turned green and the farmer came out and began to plough and sow. But the wood burst into so great a splendour that no one could hope to describe it: there were flowers at her feet and sunshine in her green tree-tops; the song of the birds echoed in even the smallest............