TYLTYL What do you say?...
THE DOG I must kiss you now you've beaten me!... (He covers TYLTYL with violent kisses and embraces.)
TYLTYL Come.... That will do.... That's enough.... Go away!...
MYTYL No, no; I want him to stay.... I am afraid of everything when he is not there....
THE DOG (leaping up and almost upsetting MYTYL, whom he overwhelms with hurried and enthusiastic kisses) Oh, the dear little girl!... How beautiful she is!... How good she is!... How beautiful she is, how sweet she is!...I must kiss her!... Once more, once more, once more!...
THE CAT What an idiot!... Well, we shall see!... Let us lose no time.... Turn the diamond....
TYLTYL Where shall I stand?...
THE CAT In this moonbeam; you will see better.... There, turn it gently!...
(TYLTYL turns the Diamond. A long-drawn-out rustling shakes the leaves and branches. The oldest and most stately trunks open to make way for the soul which each of them contains. The appearance of these souls differs according to the appearance and the character of the trees which they represent. The soul of the ELM, for instance, is a sort of pursy, pot-bellied, crabbed gnome; the LIME-TREE is placid, familiar and jovial; the BEECH, elegant and agile; the BIRCH, white, reserved and restless; the WILLOW, stunted, dishevelled and plaintive; the FIR-TREE, tall, lean and taciturn; the CYPRESS, tragic; the CHESTNUT-TREE, pretentious and rather dandified; the POPLAR, sprightly, cumbersome, talkative. Some emerge slowly from their trunks, torpidly stretching themselves, as though they had been imprisoned or asleep for ages; others leap out actively, eagerly; and all come and stand in a circle round the two CHILDREN, while keeping as near as they can to the tree in which they were born.)
THE POPLAR (running up first and screaming at the top of his voice) Men?... Little men!... We shall be able to talk to them!... We've done with silence!... Done with it!... Where do they come from?... Who are they?... What are they?... (To the LIME-TREE, who comes forward quietly smoking his pipe) Do you know them, Daddy Lime-Tree?...