as
spring came, therefore, the keeper brought a cutting and stuck it where
the old poplar used to stand, stamped down the ground firmly all around
it and nodded to it:

"Hurry, now, and shoot up," he said. "I know it's in your blood; and you
have only to look down the road to see good examples for you to follow
in growing."

Now the man thought it was a poplar he had planted. But it was only a
quite ordinary willow-twig, which he had taken by mistake, and, as time
passed and the cutting grew up, this came to light.

"What a monster!" said the keeper. "We must pull this up again."

"Let him be, now that he's there," said the squire.

For that happened to be his mood that day.

"Shall we put up with him?" asked the poplars along the road.

They whispered about it for a long time; and, as no one knew how to get
rid of him, they agreed to put up with him. After all, he belonged to
the family, though not to the smart side of it.

"But let me see you make an effort and grow as straight as you're able,"
said the poplar who stood nearest to him. "You have found your way into
much too fine a company, let me tell you. You would have done better
beside a village-pond than in the avenue of a manor. But now the scandal
is an accomplished fact and we must hush it up as best we may. The rest
of us will shoot up and grow a bit straighter and thinner still; and
then we'll hope that the quality will drive past without noticing you."

"I'll do my best," said the willow-tree.

In the fields close by, on a little hillock, stood an oak. On the
hillock also grew a charming wild rose. They both heard what the trees
of the avenue had said and the oak began to scoff at them:

"Fancy caring to stand out there in the road!" he said. "I suppose you
will want to be running up and down next, like those silly men and
women? It was unkind and thoughtless of your mother to sow you out
there. Trees ought to grow together in a wood, if they are not as
handsome and stately as I, who can stand alone."

"My mother didn't sow me at all," said the willow-tree.

"Oh, Lord preserve us!" said the oak. "So your mother didn't sow you at
all, didn't she? Perhaps the others weren't sown either? Perhaps you
just dropped down from the sky?"

"If you had eyes in your head, you would have seen that the keeper put
me here," said the willow. "I am a cutting."

And all along the road the poplars whispered to one another:

"We are cuttings ... cuttings ..