Tom with his axe was stepping through the wood, a sapling called to him, and stopped him on his way,“Do clear away those trees, kind friend, I wish you would！

　　They will not let me have free play, on me the sunlight cannot fall. To spread my roots, I find no room at all, no whisper of the wind about me plays, and they twine above my head a veritable maze.

　　I tell you, but for them, if I could only start, you'd find me in a year the pride of all this part. The dell to right and left my friendly shade should cover, but as it is, you see！ I'm brushwood—little over.”

　　Then Tom, he swung his axe apace, his kindness did not waver, and to do a friend this favour, and round the little tree he cleared a tidy space.

　　Poor Sapling！ Not for long his triumph lasted, the heat came first, his sap to drain, and then he was lashed with hail and rain, and last a dreadful storm, which left him quite dismasted！

　　“Oh foolish one,”heard by a serpent,“it was you that brought about your fall.

　　If longer in the wood's kind shelter you'd been reared, then neither heat nor wind your calm could so importune: you had the elder trees for guardians of your fortune, and if there came a time when all had disappeared, because their day was past and gone.

　　In turn you might have reached such height, as years went on, and so much health and strength have gathered. That all this harm would never have been done, and fiercer storms than this you might have safely weathered.”

　　湯姆帶著斧子穿過樹林時，一棵小樹叫他，他就停下了腳步。“好心人，幫我砍掉那些樹吧，我希望你能幫我這個忙！

　　它們讓我無法自由地玩耍，陽光照不到我的身上，我的根也無法延伸。我完全沒有空間了，四周密不透風，它們在我頭頂結成天羅地網。

　　我告訴你，要不是它們，一年之內，你會發(fā)現我才是這里的驕傲，我的枝葉將會遮蔽山谷的左右兩旁。然而，你看，現在我只是小灌木。”

　　于是，湯姆揮動他的斧子。為幫助朋友，他義不容辭！他在小樹的周圍開辟出了一片干凈的地方。

　　可憐的小樹！好景不長，先是酷熱降臨，吸走了它的汁液。接著它又遭受了暴雨和冰雹的襲擊，最后一場致命的風暴把它的枝葉都打折了！

　　“傻瓜！”它聽到附近的一條蛇說道，“你是自作自受！

　　如果你在養(yǎng)育你的老樹懷抱里待更長的時間，無論炎炎烈日還是狂風大作，你都可以在老樹的庇護下安然度日。如果有一天那些老樹都離開了這個世界，隨著時間的流逝，你也長到它們那樣的高度了。

　　你也變得像它們那樣強壯有力，那樣即使比這更大的風暴，你也可以挺過去，而不會是今天這樣的結果。”

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