In the evening, at his leisure hour, after having chosen the place for his future abode, and measured the space for a small garden, he was revolving once more in his thoughts the whole plan of his hermitage, where he intended to pass his days in retirement, separated from all society, in the service of a shadowy companion who seemed to have little more reality than a calendar saint which a pious friar selects for his spiritual love; when the Elf appeared to him on the banks of the pond, and thus addressed him with a graceful gesture:—
“Thanks to thee, dear stranger, for having prevented the violent hands of thy brethren from felling that tree to which my life is tied by sisterly bonds; for thou must know, that Nature, which has favoured our race with many talents and gifts, has however united the fate of our lives with the growth and duration of the oak. It is through us that this king of the forest towers above the other trees and shrubs; we promote the circulation of its sap through the stem and branches, to give it strength to combat with the storm, and to resist through many ages the power of all-destroying time. In return, our life is dependent on their’s: if the oak decays to which fate has linked our lot, we
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