'
'Will you be here when we come again?' they asked.
'Surely, sure-ly,' said Puck. 'I've been here some time
already. One minute first, please.'
He gave them each three leaves - one of Oak, one of
Ash and one of Thorn.
'Bite these,' said he. 'Otherwise you might be talking at
home of what you've seen and heard, and - if I know
human beings - they'd send for the doctor. Bite!'
They bit hard, and found themselves walking side by
side to the lower gate. Their father was leaning over it.
'And how did your play go?' he asked.
'Oh, splendidly,' said Dan. 'Only afterwards, I think,
we went to sleep. it was very hot and quiet. Don't you
remember, Una?'
Una shook her head and said nothing.
'I see,' said her father.
'Late - late in the evening Kilmeny came home,
For Kilmeny had been she could not tell where,
And Kilmeny had seen what she could not declare.
But why are you chewing leaves at your time of life,
daughter? For fun?'
'No. It was for something, but I can't exactly remember,'
said Una.
And neither of them could till -
A Tree Song
Of all the trees that grow so fair,
Old England to adorn,
Greater are none beneath the Sun,
Than Oak and Ash and Thorn.
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