"It did not look like much of a
tree to me," said he; "it looked like a dead tree. It was black and
bare."
"What makes you say that?" said the second son. "The tree has hundreds
of beautiful red buds. This is why it is called the Red-Bud Tree."
The third prince said: "Red buds, did you say? Why do you say it has
red buds? It is covered with green leaves."
The prince who had seen the tree last laughed at his brothers, saying:
"I have just seen that tree, and it is not like a dead tree. It has
neither red buds nor green leaves on it. It is covered with little
bean-pods."
The king heard them and waited until they stopped talking. Then he
said: "My sons, you have all four seen the same tree, but each of you
saw it at a different time of the year."
X
THE WOODPECKER AND THE LION
One day while a Lion was eating his dinner a bone stuck in his throat.
It hurt so that he could not finish his dinner. He walked up and down,
up and down, roaring with pain.
A Woodpecker lit on a branch of a tree near-by, and hearing the Lion,
she said, "Friend, what ails you?" The Lion told the Woodpecker what
the matter was, and the Woodpecker said: "I would take the bone out of
your throat, friend, but I do not dare to put my head into your mouth,
for fear I might never get it out again.
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