It all happened long, long ago. There were no towns then with houses and streets, and church steeples domineering over everything. There were no schools, for there were not many boys, and those that there were learnt from their father to shoot with the bow and arrow, to hunt the stag in his , to kill the bear in order to make clothes out of his skin, and to rub two pieces of wood together till they caught fire. When they knew this , they had finished their education. There were no railways either, and no cultivated fields, no ships on the sea, no books, for there was nobody who could read them.
 
 
There was scarcely anything except trees. But trees there were in plenty. They stood everywhere from coast to coast; they saw themselves reflected in all the rivers and lakes, and stretched their up towards heaven. They leaned out over the shore, dipped their boughs in the black water, and from the high hills looked out proudly over the land.
 
They all knew each other, for they belonged to a great family, and were proud of it.
 
"We are all oak trees," they said. "We own the land, and rule over it."
 
And they were right. There were only a few human beings there in those days, and those that there were were nothing better than wild animals. The bear, the wolf, and the fox went out hunting, while the stag grazed by the edge of the fen. The field-mouse sat outside his hole and ate , and the built his houses by the river banks.
 
 
One day the bear came along and lay down at full breadth under a great oak tree.
 
 
 
"Are you there again, you robber?" said the oak, and shook a lot of leaves down over him.
 
"You should not your leaves, my old friend," said the bear, licking his paws. "That is all the shade you can give against the sun."
 
"If you are not pleased with me, you can go," answered the oak proudly. "I am lord in the land, and whatever way you look you find my brothers and nothing else."
 
"True," muttered the bear. "That is just what is so sickening. I have been for a little tour abroad, I may tell you, and am just a little bit spoilt. It was in a land down towards the south—there I took a nap under the trees. They are tall, slim trees, not old things like you. And their tops are so that the sunbeams cannot creep through them. It was a real pleasure there to take a midday nap, I assure you."
 
"Beech trees?" said the oak . "What are they?"
 
 
"You might well wish you were half as pretty as a beech tree," said the bear. "But I don't want to any more with you just now. I have had to a mile on account of a confounded hunter who struck me on one of my legs with an arrow. Now I should like to have a sleep, and perhaps you will be kind enough to leave me at peace, since you cannot give me shade."
 
The bear stretched himself out and closed his eyes; but he got no sleep that time, for the other trees had heard his story, and they began and talking and their leaves in a way never known in the wood before.
 
"What on earth can those trees be?" said one of them.
 
"It is, of course, a story; the bear wishes to impose upon us," said the other.
 
"What kind of trees can they be whose leaves sit so close together that the sunbeams cannot creep between them?" asked a little oak, who was listening to what the big ones were talking about.
 
But by his side stood an old gnarled tree, who gave the little oak a on the head with one of his lowest boughs.
 
 
"Hold your tongue," he said, "and don't talk till you have something to talk about. You need none of you believe a word of the bear's nonsense. I am much taller than you, and I can see far out over the wood. But so far as ever I can see, there is nothing but oak trees."
 
The little oak was shamefaced, and held his tongue; and the other big trees to one another in low whispers, for they had great respect for the old one.
 
 
But the bear got up and rubbed his eyes. "Now you have disturbed my midday nap," he angrily, "and I declare that I will have my revenge. When I come back I will bring some beech nuts with me, and I you will all turn yellow with when you see how pretty the new trees are."
 
 
Then he made off. But the oaks talked the whole day long one to another about the funny trees he had told them about.
 
"If they come, I will kill them," said the little oak tree, but directly afterwards he got one on the head from the old oak.
 
 
"If they come, you shall treat them politely, you young dog," said he. "But they will not come."
 
But in this the old oak was wrong, for they did come.
 
Towards autumn the bear came back and lay down under the old oak.
 
"My friends down there wish me to present their compliments," he said, and he picked some funny things out of his shaggy coat. "Here you may see what I have for you."
 
"What is it?" asked the oak.
 
"That is beech," answered the bear—"the beech nuts which I promised you."
 
Then he them into the ground and prepared to go back.
 
"It is a pity I cannot stay and see how angry you will be," he growled, "but those confounded human beings have begun to press one so hard. The day before yesterday they killed my wife and one of my brothers, and I must see about finding a place where I can live in peace. There is scarcely a spot left where a self-respecting bear can stay. Good-bye, you old, gnarled oak trees!"
 
When the bear had shambled off, the trees looked at one another anxiously.
 
"Let us see what comes of it," said the old oak.
 
And after this they composed themselves to rest. The winter came and tore all their leaves off them, the snow lay high over the whole land, and every tree stood deep in his own thoughts and dreamt of the spring.
 
 
And when the spring came the grass stood green, and the birds began singing where they left off last. The flowers came up in multitudes from the earth, and everything looked fresh and gay.
 
The oak trees alone stood with leafless boughs.
 
"It is the most thing to come last!" they said one to another. "The kings of the wood do not come till the whole company is assembled."
 
But at last they came. All the leaves burst from the buds, and the trees looked at one another and complimented one another on their beauty. The little ............