`` And you need never be dull when you have work to do . ` Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do ! ' '' `` Well , mischief is interesting , '' laughed the Story Girl . `` And I thought you did n't think it lady-like to speak of that person , Felicity ? '' `` It 's all right if you call him by his polite name , '' said Felicity stiffly . `` Why does the Lombardy poplar hold its branches straight up in the air like that , when all the other poplars hold theirs out or hang them down ? '' interjected Peter , who had been gazing intently at the slender spire showing darkly against the fine blue eastern sky . `` Because it grows that way , '' said Felicity . `` Oh I know a story about that , '' cried the Story Girl . `` Once upon a time an old man found the pot of gold at the rainbow 's end . There IS a pot there , it is said , but it is very hard to find because you can never get to the rainbow 's end before it vanishes from your sight . But this old man found it , just at sunset , when Iris , the guardian of the rainbow gold , happened to be absent . As he was a long way from home , and the pot was very big and heavy , he decided to hide it until morning and then get one of his sons to go with him and help him carry it . So he hid it under the boughs of the sleeping poplar tree . `` When Iris came back she missed the pot of gold and of course she was in a sad way about it . She sent Mercury , the messenger of the gods , to look for it , for she did n't dare leave the rainbow again , lest somebody should run off with that too . Mercury asked all the trees if they had seen the pot of gold , and the elm , oak and pine pointed to the poplar and said , '' ` The poplar can tell you where it is . ' '' ` How can I tell you where it is ? ' cried the poplar , and she held up all her branches in surprise , just as we hold up our hands -- and down tumbled the pot of gold . The poplar was amazed and indignant , for she was a very honest tree .
She stretched her boughs high above her head and declared that she would always hold them XXXXX that , so that nobody could hide stolen gold under them again .
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