The Man and the Wood

A Man came into a Wood one day with an axe¹ in his hand, and
begged all the Trees to give him a small branch which he wanted
for a particular purpose.  The Trees were good-natured and gave
him one of their branches.  What did the Man do but fix it into
the axe head, and soon set to work cutting down tree after tree.
Then the Trees saw how foolish they had been in giving their enemy
the means of destroying themselves.