“There was once an old garden.  Flowers and fruit of every description grew in it, and when no human creature was about the air was full of flower laughter and fruit conversation.  One day in autumn some saucy sparrows were teasing a young walnut-tree that stood between an apple and a pear-tree, opposite a wall which was covered with beautiful golden plums.

“‘What are you here for?’ they said, pecking at the round green balls that hung on the tree, and then wiping their beaks in disgust on the grass underneath.  ’Ugh! you’re sour and bitter and nasty enough to poison a person!  You’re a disgrace to your master.  The red and yellow apples next door to you are delicious this warm day, and the pears make one’s mouth fairly water, while as to the plums over there—­well, every one is fighting for them, from the slugs and snails to every bird in the country, and the boys and girls and men and women—­all of us have to be kept off by those horrible nets which the old gardener is continually spreading!’

“‘I’m sure,’ whispered the young walnuts, humbly, ’we don’t mean any harm.  We don’t quite know why we are here ourselves.  We have been hoping to see our green skins get red and yellow, and soft and ripe, like everything else round us, but they seem to get harder and uglier as time goes by.  They feel very heavy, and our stems ache with holding them up; do you think it just possible there may be something inside?’

“‘Inside!’ laughed the sparrows; ’who ever heard of the inside being better than the outside?  You’re stuffed with conceit, but nothing else.’

“And away they flew, for they were not a year old themselves, and knew nothing about autumn nuts and berries.

“The walnuts sighed and appealed to an old crow flying by.

“’Do you think we have been planted in this beautiful garden by mistake?’ they said.  ’We have been waiting a long time to give pleasure and to do good to those around us.  The bees give us a wide berth—­they say they can get no honey from us; we have no sweet scent to please the passer-by, no lovely blossoms to delight their eyes.  The apples have had blossoms and fruit, and all the other trees the same, yet here we hang and grow, and the days go by and we’re only laughed at for our ugliness and want of sweetness.’

“‘Wait a little longer,’ said the old crow; ’wait, and take pains to grow!’

“And the walnuts waited, and the sun kissed their hard skins, and the rain refreshed them when dry and thirsty; and still the sparrows mocked them, and the apple and pear-tree talked to each other over their heads, for they too looked upon them as a failure.  One day the biggest walnut broke from his stem and dropped in the long grass.  No one heeded his fall except his brothers; the gardener came by and gathered the apples and pears, but did not look at the walnut-tree; and when he kicked the fallen walnut with his feet he took no more notice of it than if it had been a pebble.