There was a Man who came into a forest and asked the Trees to provide him a branch of tree for the handle for his axe.
The Trees granted to his request and gave him a young ash-tree.
No sooner had the man fitted a new handle to his axe from it, than he began to use it and quickly felled with his strokes the noblest giants of the forest.
An old oak, crying loudly when too late the destruction of his companions, said to a neighboring cedar,
"The first step has lost us all. If we had not
given up the rights of the ash, we might yet
have retained our own privileges and have stood
for ages."