86 
THE STORY OR THE OAK TREE 
voice which carries a long way, and whenever danger 
approaches, whether of beast or man, this excited little 
bird sends out a warning cry so that his sluggish lazy 
friend the crocodile may slide under the mud out of 
danger. The zic-zac perches upon the crocodile’s back 
and picks off leeches to eat; sometimes he will even snatch 
a piece of food from between the reptile’s teeth! A 
traveller tells how the zic-zac, “in searching for the 
leeches, finds its way into the reptile’s mouth while the 
latter is basking on a sandbank, where it lies generally 
with the jaws wide open. Once in a while the crocodile 
falls asleep, when the jaws suddenly fall, and the zic-zac 
is shut up in the mouth. It straightway prods the croco¬ 
dile with its horny spurs, as if refreshing the memory of 
his reptilian majesty, who opens his jaws and lets his 
favorite leech-catcher free.” 
It is a far cry from our oak tree to the zic-zac on the 
banks of the Nile, but I want you to see how all over the 
world Nature’s web of life extends, linking animal and 
plant and earth and man. There are plants which move 
almost as though they were urged by animal instincts; 
Pimpernel, the Shepherd’s Weather-Glass, closes its 
petals if the sun goes behind a cloud. If you stop a 
moment I am sure you can think of a flower which 
“goes to sleep” at night. Flowers do not really go to 
