⟡

detail

‘Oh, no!’ said Treebeard. ‘None have died from inside, as you might say. Some have fallen in the evil chances of the long years, of course: and more have grown tree-ish. But there were never many of us and we have not increased. There have been no Entings — no children, you would say, not for a terrible long count of years. You see, we lost the Entwives.’