You are a traveling tinker, leading your pack mule through the forest. Branches criss-cross the path so much that you walk continuously in shade. Ferns and moss carpet the forest floor. The day is peaceful.
You are half a day from Bobeck village. You've traveled this route many times, to Frankfurt and back to Dresden again.
2) Take the left path to a meadow.
3) Take the right path to a creek.
You enjoy your lunch in a meadow full of clover and chamomile. You can hear songbirds. They rise from a tree nearby and wheel around the meadow.
You notice their shadows join on the grass almost in the shape of a man. The shadowy form steadies. It is a man. It appears to leap across the meadow as the birds fly about.
The birds circle you, closer and closer. The shadow man capers around you, drawing nearer on each round. You've never seen anything like this.
4) Throw bread to the birds.
5) Dance with the shadow.
You dust yourself off and give the shadow a mock curtsy. As it spins around, you jump to keep up and go in rough circles around the meadow. The way the shadow's arms and legs caper makes you laugh. You sit down in the clover to catch your breath.
The birds circle you once more and then fly off over the forest, their shadows bursting apart into separate birds again.
You continue to Bobeck, stopping first at Mam Gudnar's house. You want to tell her about your odd and exhilarating encounter.
10) Sit inside.
11) Sit outside.
You tell her your tale while she rocks a wee babe. Mam Gudnar is smiling when you finish. "You sound like you enjoyed yourself, Tinker."
"I dare say I did," you laugh. "It's not everyday you can accept a dance from sparrows."
The babe gabbles and Mam resettles him in her arms. She nods towards the forest beyond her beet fields. "If you've a mind to, there's more lives in those woods than any of us know.
"What is it folk say? 'A branch of ash to find a friend, or carry elm and find your end.' There's more to it, but that's the bit that rhymed."
22) Cut an ash branch.
23) Cut an elm branch.