Tom with his axe was stepping through the wood, a sapling called to him, and stopped him on his way, “Do clear away those trees, kind friend, I wish you would! They will not let me have free play, on me the sunlight cannot fall. To spread my roots, I find no room at all, no whisper of the wind about me plays, and they twine above my head a veritable maze. I tell you, but for them, if I could only start, you'd find me in a year the pride of all this part. The dell to right and left my friendly shade should cover, but as it is, you see! I'm brushwood — little over.”
Then Tom, he swung his axe apace, his kindness did not waver, and to do a friend this favour, and round the little tree he cleared a tidy space.
Poor Sapling! Not for long his triumph lasted, the heat came first, his sap to drain, and then he was lashed with hail and rain, and last a dreadful storm, which left him quite dismasted!
“Oh foolish one,” heard by a serpent, “it was you that brought about your fall. If longer in the wood's kind shelter you'd been reared, then neither heat nor wind your calm could so importune: you had the elder trees for guardians of your fortune, and if there came a time when all had disappeared, because their day was past and gone. In turn you might have reached such height, as years went on, and so much health and strength have gathered. That all this harm would never have been done, and fiercer storms than this you might have safely weathered.”
汤姆带着斧子，轻快地走在树林里。一棵小树半路叫住了他：“把那些树都砍掉，朋友，我拜托你！他们妨碍我自由生长，阳光都照不到我身上。我要伸展根部，连个地方都没有。听不到风吹树叶沙沙响，他们盘根错节在我头顶筑成一座迷宫。我跟你说，要是没有他们，从现在开始算，一年以后我就能长成这片林子的骄傲。我的树荫足够罩住左右两边的小山谷。可是你看，现在我就是个小矮子，差不多就是那么个高度吧。”
汤姆听了，快速挥起了斧子。他很仗义，帮朋友这点忙不算什么。他把这棵小树周围的树砍了个精光。
可怜的小树啊！没高兴了几天，先是热浪袭来，他身体的水分流干了。接着是又下冰雹又下雨，树干被抽打个没完，最后来了一场要命的暴风雨，他被拦腰折断。
一条蛇听了，说:“真是个笨蛋。你这是自己找死啊。要是你能多在他们的保护伞下成长，生活的平静就不会被热浪和大风打破，因为你有大树们帮你遮挡风雨啊。总有那么一天，他们到了年纪就会全部消失不见。在那之前，你完全可以一年年地长高，还能长得很健壮。如果没有受这些伤，就是再猛烈的暴风雨你也能安全挺过去的。”
-twine [twaɪn] v. 盘绕
-veritable [ˈverɪtəbl] adj. 名副其实的
-dell [del] n. (长有树木的)小山谷
-lash [læʃ] vi. 猛击;抽打
成长不是一蹴而就的过程，从被长者、强者保护到给予幼者、弱者保护是大自然亘古不变的规律。拔苗助长，反而会适得其反。