grew in it, and when no human creature was about the air was full of
flower laughter and fruit conversation. One day in autumn some saucy
sparrows were teasing a young walnut-tree that stood between an apple
and a pear-tree, opposite a wall which was covered with beautiful golden
plums.

"'What are you here for?' they said, pecking at the round green balls
that hung on the tree, and then wiping their beaks in disgust on the
grass underneath. 'Ugh! you're sour and bitter and nasty enough to
poison a person! You're a disgrace to your master. The red and yellow
apples next door to you are delicious this warm day, and the pears make
one's mouth fairly water, while as to the plums over there--well, every
one is fighting for them, from the slugs and snails to every bird in the
country, and the boys and girls and men and women--all of us have to be
kept off by those horrible nets which the old gardener is continually
spreading!'

"'I'm sure,' whispered the young walnuts, humbly, 'we don't mean any
harm. We don't quite know why we are here ourselves. We have been hoping
to see our green skins get red and yellow, and soft and ripe, like
everything else round us, but they seem to get harder and uglier as time
goes by. They feel very heavy, and our stems ache with holding them up;
do you think it just possible there may be something inside?'

"'Inside!' laughed the sparrows; 'who ever heard of the inside being
better than the outside? You're stuffed with conceit, but nothing else.'

"And away they flew, for they were not a year old themselves, and knew
nothing about autumn nuts and berries.