Page:The Boy Who Knew What The Birds Said.djvu/176

 person. Let him go to the meeting of two roads, turn with the sun and tell his secret to the first tree on his right hand. And when he feels he has told his secret your son will get the better of his sickness."

When this was told to the young man he got up off his bed and he walked to where two roads met. He turned as the sun turns and he whispered into the branches of the first tree on his right hand. And the secret that he whispered was "King Labraid Lorc has the ears of a horse." Then he turned from the tree and he went home. He slept, and in the morning when he woke he was well and he went to his work and he was happy and cheerful.

But the tree that he whispered his secret to was a willow, and, as you know, out of the branches