Chapter 2
A woodsman went into the forest and petitioned the trees to provide him a handle for his ax. It seemed so modest a request that the principal tree granted it right away, and declared that the plain homely ash tree should offer its branch for the purpose. No sooner had the woodsman fitted the staff handle to his axe, however, than he began chopping down the noblest trees in the woods. By the time the oak grasped the entire matter, it was too late, and he whispered to a neighboring cedar, “With our first concession we lost everything. If we had not sacrificed our humble ash tree, we might still be able to stand for ages.”
When the rich surrender the rights of the poor, they provide a handle to be used against their own privileges.
