The Cherry Tree Egg

The quality of mercy is stressed in this delightful picture book.

In this vibrant, yet tenderly illustrated book, three friends are searching for cherries dropped by birds, when they find an egg in the grass. Weasel is quite happy to have an egg instead of a cherry.

“Let’s eat it,” he said.

“But it’s so small that it would hardly be worth it,” said Tortoise, who had once been an egg himself.

So Tortoise watches over it, and feeds the little chick that emerges, and even manages to persuade Weasel that he should help him fatten it up. Mole finds worms especially for their little protégé. And when at last the bird is fully-grown, even Weasel cannot bring himself to eat her! So she flies off unhindered -- and then she flies back again, with cherries in her mouth.