CHAPTER III

THE LILAC-BUSH 59

CHAPTER IV

THE BEECH AND THE OAK 69

CHAPTER V

THE WEEDS 81

CHAPTER VI

THE ANEMONES 89

CHAPTER VII

THE WOOD AND THE HEATH 101

CHAPTER VIII

SOMEWHERE IN THE WOOD 111

CHAPTER IX

THE COUSINS 123

[Illustration: List of Pictures]

'You have disturbed my afternoon nap'
(_Coloured_) _Frontispiece._

'I want to pick some for myself!'
(_Coloured_) 40

The old dog stood on his hind-legs and
blinked with his blind eyes 50

'You really ought not to be so wasteful
with your leaves, old friend,' said
the bear, licking his paws 70

'Hide me! Save me!' (_Coloured_) 80

'Fie, for shame!' they cried to the
beech-leaves. 'It's you that are
killing us' 94

'Good-bye,' said the maiden-pink 114

There sat the mouse in the sugar-basin
(_Coloured_) 128

[Illustration: The Old Willow-tree]

I

There are many kinds of willows and they are so unlike that you would
hardly believe them to be relations.

There are some so small and wretched that they creep along the ground.
They live on the heath, or high up in the mountains, or in the cold
arctic regions. In the winter, they are quite hidden under the snow; in
the summer, they just poke up their noses above the tops of the heather.

There are people who shrink from notice because they are so badly off.
It is simply stupid to be ashamed of being poor; and the little
dwarf-willows are not a bit ashamed. But they know that the soil they
grow in is so poor that they can never attain the height of proper
trees. If they tried to shoot up and began to carry their heads like
their stately cousins the poplars, they would soon learn the difference.

For