Her stalks and leaves were slack and she had a regular pain in her roots. Her flowers were so queer and loose, she thought.

 

When she complained of not being well, the sheep's-scabious and the bell-flower said that it was just the same with them. So did the blades of grass, but that did not count, for they always agreed with any one they were talking to. The moss¹ said nothing, but that did not signify either, for nobody asked him.

 

"We want rain," said the hazel-bush. "There's nothing else the matter. It doesn't affect me yet, but I suppose it will. You are so short and slender; that's why you feel it first."

 

The blades of grass nodded and thought that this was remarkably² well said on the part of the hazel-bush. The others hung their heads. The linnet sang as best he could to cheer the sick friends.

 

But sick they were and sick they remained; and it grew worse every day.

 

"I think I'm dying," said the maiden-pink.

 

The blades of grass observed, most politely, that they were already half-dead. The hazel-bush was not feeling well either and the linnet thought the air so heavy that he was not at all inclined to sing.

 

And, while they were talking about all this, towards the evening, they heard the same complaint in the whispering that came from the great wood, in the bell of the stag and the bay of the fox and the croak³ of the frog and the squeak⁴ of the mouse in her hole. The ranger⁵ and the farmer went past and talked about it; they looked up at the bright sky and shook their heads:

 

"We shall have no rain to-morrow either," said the ranger. "My small trees are dying."

 

"And my corn is being blighted," said the farmer.

 

Next morning, the friends became seriously alarmed when they looked at one another.

 

They were hardly recognizable, so ill did they appear, with yellow, hanging leaves and faded flowers and dry roots. Only the moss looked as usual.

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