He listened, and there was no sound in the wood, not even the hum of a fly or wild bee, and it was so still that not a leaf moved.

Finally he moved away from that spot, but treading very softly, and holding his breath to listen, for it seemed to him that the forest had something to tell him, and that if he listened he would hear the leaves speaking to him.

And by-and-by he did hear a sound: it came from a spot about a hundred yards away, and was like the sound of a person crying.

Then came low sobs which rose and fell and then ceased, and after a silent interval began again.

Perhaps it was a child, lost there in the forest like himself.
Going softly to the spot he discovered that the sobbing sounds came from the other side of a low tree with widespread branches, a kind of acacia with thin loose foliage, but he could not see through it, and so he went round the tree to look, and startled a dove which flew off with a loud clatter of its wings.
When the dove had flown away it was again very silent.