An old Oak dropped an acorn under a Hazelbush. The Hazelbush said to the
Oak:
"Have you not enough space under your own branches? Drop your acorns in
an open space. Here I am myself crowded by my shoots, and I do not drop
my nuts to the ground, but give them to men."
"I have lived for two hundred years," said the Oak, "and the Oakling
which will sprout from that acorn will live just as long."
Then the Hazelbush flew into a rage, and said:
"If so, I will choke your Oakling, and he will not live for three days."
The Oak made no reply, but told his son to sprout out of that acorn. The
acorn got wet and burst, and clung to the ground with his crooked
rootlet, and sent up a sprout.
The Hazelbush tried to choke him, and gave him no sun. But the Oakling
spread upwards and grew stronger in the shade of the Hazelbush. A
hundred years passed. The Hazelbush had long ago dried up, but the Oak
from that acorn towered to the sky and spread his tent in all
directions.