The Trees and the Axe

英语自学网

The Trees and the Axe
    A MAN came into a forest and asked the Trees to provide him a
    handle for his axe.  The Trees consented to his request and gave
    him a young ash-tree.  No sooner had the man fitted a new handle
    to his axe from it, than he began to use it and quickly felled
    with his strokes the noblest giants of the forest.  An old oak,
    lamenting when too late the destruction of his companions, said
    to a neighboring cedar, "The first step has lost us all.  If we
    had not given up the rights of the ash, we might yet have
    retained our own privileges and have stood for ages."