He was treating a field of corn in the same way, when the farmers, whose grounds had been invaded by North Wind, hastened to Eolus and made complaint of the damage he had done them. North Wind was at once called in. He heard the complaint which the farmers made, and was asked what he had to say for himself. He answered, "I did not mean to do any harm. I was only in play. The lily, and the apple tree, and the bees, and the corn, would not play with me, so I gave the lily a little twist, and the tree one little shake, just touched the bees with my foot, and gave the ears of corn a light box with my hand. I was only playing."
"But the lily," said the father, "is dead; the tree has lost her fruit; the bees are killed, and the corn-fields are laid waste. Your play is too rough. Hereafter you will stay in doors in the summer, and go out only in the winter, when gardens, orchards and fields are bare, or covered with snow." And now we may hear him some winter night, howling through the leafless trees, or in the daytime we may see him tossing the white snow against the window-panes or into drifts by the roadside. |
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