Part 14 (1/2)
THE LIME-TREE I do not remember ever having seen them....
THE POPLAR Oh, yes, you must have!... You know all the men; you're always hanging about their houses....
THE LIME-TREE (_examining the_ CHILDREN) No, I a.s.sure you.... I don't know them.... They are too young still.... I only know the lovers who come to see me by moonlight and the topers who drink their beer under my branches....
THE CHESTNUT-TREE (_affectedly adjusting his eyegla.s.s_) Who are these?... Are they poor people from the country?...
THE POPLAR Oh, as for you, Mr. Chestnut-Tree, ever since you have refused to show yourself except in the streets of the big towns...
THE WILLOW (_hobbling along in a pair of wooden shoes_) Oh dear, oh dear!... They have come to cut off my head and arms again for f.a.gots!...
THE POPLAR Silence!... Here is the Oak leaving his palace!... He looks far from well this evening.... Don't you think he is growing very old?... What can his age be?... The Fir-tree says he is four thousand; but I am sure that he exaggerates.... Listen; he will tell us all about it....
(_The_ OAK _comes slowly forward. He is fabulously old, crowned with mistletoe and clad in a long green gown edged with moss and lichen. He is blind; his white beard streams in the wind. He leans with one hand on a knotty stick and with the other on a young_ OAKLING, _who serves as his guide. The Blue Bird is perched on his shoulder. At his approach, the other trees draw themselves up in a row and bow respectfully_.)
TYLTYL He has the Blue Bird!... Quick! Quick!... Here!... Give it to me!...
THE TREES Silence!...
THE CAT (_to_ TYLTYL) Take of your hat. It's the Oak!...
THE OAK (_to_ TYLTYL) Who are you?....
TYLTYL I am Tyltyl, sir.... When can I have the Blue Bird?...
THE OAK Tyltyl, the wood-cutter's son?...
TYLTYL Yes, sir....
THE OAK Your father has done us much harm.... In my family alone, he has put to death six hundred of my sons, four hundred and seventy-five uncles and aunts, twelve hundred cousins of both s.e.xes, three hundred and eighty daughters-in-law, and twelve thousand great-grandsons!...
TYLTYL I know nothing about it, sir.... He did not do it on purpose....
THE OAK What have you come here for; and why have you made our souls leave their abodes?...
TYLTYL I beg your pardon, sir, for disturbing you.... The Cat said that you would tell us where the Blue Bird was....
THE OAK Yes, I know that you are looking for the Blue Bird, that is to say, the great secret of things and of happiness, so that Man may make our servitude still harder....
TYLTYL Oh, no, sir; it is for the Fairy Berylune's little girl, who is very ill....
THE OAK (_laying silence upon him with a gesture_) Enough!... I do not hear the Animals.... Where are they?... All this concerns them as much as us.... We, the Trees, must not a.s.sume the responsibility alone for the grave measures that have become necessary....
On the day when MAN hears that we have done what we are about to do, there will be terrible reprisals..... It is right, therefore, that our agreement should be unanimous, so that our silence may be the same....
THE FIR-TREE (_looking over the top of the other trees_) The Animals are coming.... They are following the Rabbit.... Here are the souls of the Horse, the Bull, the Ox, the Cow, the Wolf, the Sheep, the Pig, the c.o.c.k, the Goat, the a.s.s, and the Bear....
(_Enter the souls of the_ ANIMALS, _who, as the_ FIR-TREE _utters their names, come forward and sit down among the trees, with the exception of the soul of the_ GOAT, _who roams to and fro, and of the_ PIG, _who snuffles among the roots_.)
THE OAK Are all here present?...
THE RABBIT The Hen could not leave her eggs, the Hare is out on a run, the Stag has a pain in his horns, the Fox is ill--here is the doctor's certificate--the Goose did not understand and the Turkey flew into a pa.s.sion....