Once upon a time a man went into the forest to cut out some firewood. He came to a birch and intended to fell it, but the birch begged plaintively, "Allow me to live! I am yet young and have many children, who would mourn my death." The wood cutter pitied the birch and went on to the oak-tree.

The oak, seeing the axe, exclaimed mournfully, "Let me live! I am still strong and robust; the acorns on me are unripe and unfit for planting. Where will the coming generations get oak-wood, if my acorns are to be destroyed?” The man listened to the oak's plea and went to the ash-tree. “

“Let me live! I am young and got married only yesterday. What will become of my wife, poor thing, if I should be killed?" wailed the ash. The wood-cutter listened to the ash and went to the maple-tree. " Let me live! My children are all very young and what will become of them when I am gone?” begged the maple.

And the man went on to the alder-tree. "Let me live! My sap is now flowing and I have to feed many small creatures with it. What will become of them if I should be cut down?"

Thus it went on: every tree begged for mercy in a human voice, and the compassionate wood-cutter always obliged. The aspen-tree asked for mercy and said, ”The Creator created me to rustle my leaves in the wind and to frighten the wrong-doers from their wicked ways. What will become of the world if I should be cut down?"

The wild-cherry said, "I have to give shelter to the singing birds and the birds would leave the country if I should be cut down, and people would be deprived of their beautiful singing.“The mountain-ash remarked, "The clusters of my berries are still growing, in order to provide the birds with food during the autumn and winter. What will become of them, poor things, if I were hacked down?

Then the man decided to try to chop down a fir-tree; but the spruce and the pine, to whom he went next, also begged for mercy, saying, "We have to stay green to adorn nature both in summer and in winter.” The juniper said, "I am the real treasure of the woods and bring happiness to all creatures, animals as well as men. I beg you to spare me.My juice cures ninety-nine diseases." So What could the poor man do, but pass the juniper by.

The wood-cutter sat on a hillock in deep thought. He did not know what to do. How did he dare go home empty-handed when his wife was waiting for fire-wood. As he sat there in troubled thoughts there stepped out of the forest an old man with a long gray beard; he wore a shirt of birch bark and a coat of spruce bark.

The stranger came to the wood-cutter and asked the reason for his distress. The wood-cutter related his story and told him how he had found the trees alive, and talking; and how he had been unable to resist their pleas for mercy.

The stranger gave him a cheerful look and thanked the wood-cutter for having spared his children and for listening to their pleas. As a token of his gratitude he gave the wood-cutter a rod of gold which would fulfil all his wishes in the future, but he also warned him to take care that the wishes should never be extravagant or impossible, or would they bring misfortune instead of expected happiness.

If he wanted to build a house he only had to go to an ant-hill, wave the rod three times over it, explain how the work was to be done and on the next morning the house would be ready. If he needed food he had to tell the cooking-pot his wish; if he wanted honey, he had to show the rod of gold to the bees and they would bring him more honeycombs than he and his family could use.