“Oh, how sweet it was to be swayed at that height by the breeze, drinking in through every pore the air and the light!”
“Oh, how beautiful it was to watch the flowing water of the river that lapped the twisted roots of the ancient tree which sustained us, that limpid, transparent water, reflecting like a mirror the azure of the sky, so that we seemed to live suspended between two blue abysses!”
“With what delight we used to peep over the green foliage to see ourselves pictured in the tremulous stream!”
“How we would sing together, imitating the murmur of the breeze and following the rhythm of the waves!”
“Brilliant insects would flit about us, spreading their gauzy wings.”
“And the white butterflies and blue dragon-flies, gyrating in strange circles through the air, would alight for a moment on our dentate edges to tell each other the secrets of that mysterious love lasting but an instant and burning up their lives.”
“Each of us was a note in the concert of the groves.”
“Each of us was a tone in their harmony of color.”
“In the silver nights when the moonbeams glided over the mountain tops, dost remember how we would chat in low voices amid the translucent shadows?”
“And we would relate in soft whispers stories of the sylphs who swing in the golden threads that the spiders hang from tree to tree.”
“Until we hushed our murmurous speech to listen enraptured to the plaints of the nightingale, who had chosen our tree for her throne of song.”
“And so sad and so tender were her lamenting strains that, though filled with joy to hear her, the dawn found us weeping.”
“Oh, how sweet were those tears which the dew of night would shed upon us, and which would sparkle with all the colors of the rainbow in the first gleam of dawn!”
“Then came the jocund flock of linnets to pour into the grove life and sound with the gleeful, gay confusion of their songs.”
“And one enamoured pair hung close to us their round nest of straws and feathers.”
“We served to shelter the little ones from the troublesome rain-drops in the summer tempests.”
“We served as a canopy to shield them from the fierce rays of the sun.”
“Our life passed like a golden dream from which we had no thought there could be an awakening.”