The blithe and luminous boy Goldmund arrives at the school which will be his home until he reaches adulthood, and feels reassured by two new friends.  Of course, his real friendship comes later, but I liked that the trusting child sees a tree as a potential friend, as well as a welcoming stranger. 

Goldmund entered the cloister without dismay, feeling that here he had met two beings, the tree and the porter, with whom he could easily be friends. 

Source: Hermann Hesse, Narziss and Goldmund, trans. by Geoffrey Dunlop (Harmondsworth: Penguin Modern Classics, 1982), p. 12

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