THE PIG (_rolling his small eyes gluttonously_)
I think we should first eat the little girl.... She ought to be very
tender....

TYLTYL
What's he saying?... Just wait a bit, you...

THE CAT
I don't know what is the matter with them; but things are beginning to look
badly....

THE OAK
Silence!... What we have to decide is which of us shall have the honour of
striking the first blow, who shall ward off from, our tops the greatest
danger that has threatened us since the birth of Man....

THE FIR-TREE
That honour falls to you, our king and our patriarch....

THE OAK
Is that the Fir-tree speaking?... Alas, I am too old!... I am blind and
infirm and my numbed arms no longer obey me.... No, to you, brother, ever
green, ever upright, to you, who have witnessed the birth of most of these
trees, to you be the glory, in default of myself, of the noble act of our
deliverance....

THE FIR-TREE
I thank you, venerable father.... But as I shall, in any case, have the
honour of burying the two victims, I should be afraid of arousing the just
jealousy of my colleagues; and I think that, next to ourselves, the oldest