Flowers and Trees (3)

Flowers and trees (3)

  There all the trees were gnarled and leafless.

  Snakes and vipers lived in their hollow trunks, vultures perched on their crooked branches, and the remains of carrion strewed the ground.

  No flowers, no other things of beauty graced that haunted place.

  The old tree had decided that he must take the graceful, leafy elm to live next to him.

  Biding his time, he grabbed at her when she had finished her toilette.

  His spiky hands clutched her trunk, and he was about to carry her off when the young sapling came to the rescue. 

  They fought a duel with wooden clubs, and the sapling managed to free the elm and place her behind him while he and the old tree battled it out.

  The sapling froced the old tree back step by step, and it was clear that the horrid old fellow was no match for the vigorous young sapling.

  But he had not lived so long without learning a few tricks of survival.

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