At once the tree began shaking all its branches as if in pain, and the Tin Woodman passed safely under it. “Come on!” he shouted to the others. “Be quick!”
They all ran forward and passed under the tree without injury, except Toto, who was caught by a small branch and shaken until he howled. But the Woodman promptly chopped off the branch and set the little dog free.
The other trees of the forest did nothing to keep them back, so they made up their minds that only the first row of trees could bend down their branches, and that probably these were the policemen of the forest, and given this wonderful power in order to keep strangers out of it. The four travelers walked with ease through the trees until they came to the farther edge of the wood.