. He just hopped around and around the Tree-Fairy and stared at
her.

In the meantime Pinkie Whiskers had caught his breath and was rested. He
tried to get up, but found that a branch of the tree held him down. He
wiggled and twisted but he could not rise.

"Help! help!" called Pinkie Whiskers.

"My goodness!" cried Uncle Whiskers. "We forgot all about that blessed
Pinkie Whiskers. Come we must help him."

They all rushed over to the tree and there was Pinkie Whiskers lying on
his back and kicking as hard as he could.

"Now just keep perfectly still and we will break the branches away,
then you can get up," said Uncle Whiskers.

Pinkie Whiskers was so glad to see Winkle, Twinkle, Uncle Whiskers,
Sammy Woodchuck and Billy Jay that he cried.

"Now, now!" said Uncle Whiskers. "You eat one of those big apples that
are just waiting right by your hand for you and you will feel better."

"When I woke up, it was all so still that I thought you had all gone
home and left me," sobbed Pinkie Whiskers.

"We are here," cried Twinkle.

"We are here," cried Winkle, "and we will have you out of that tree in a
moment."

Already Sammy Woodchuck and Uncle Whiskers had broken the branches away
and now they lifted Pinkie Whiskers to his feet.

Pinkie Whiskers was all smiles as he stood in the green meadow again,
but he said:

"I shall never cut down a tree again. This one nearly killed me."

"You owe your life to Billy Jay. It was Billy who caught your tail and
pulled you out from under the falling tree trunk just in time or you
surely would have been crushed," said Uncle Whiskers.

"All is well that ends well and really, Pinkie Whiskers, you never did
such a wonderful thing before and you probably will never do such a
wonderful deed in your life again, for you have set the Tree-Fairy free.
Look over there and you will see her," said Sammy Woodchuck.

Pinkie Whiskers looked and he was so surprised that his little mouth
flew open, and I am ashamed to say that he stared too. Yes, he actually
stared at the Tree-Fairy.

The Tree-Fairy smiled and came dancing over to him. She bowed and said,
"I want to thank you for saving my life. If it had not been for you, I
would not be standing here in this beautiful sunshine."

"Do tell us how you came to be in the tree trunk, won't you please?"
begged Twinkle.

"To be sure, I will tell you," laughed the Tree-Fairy. This is the story
she told:

"In Fairyland there are Witches as w