Although it consistently feels conversational, the tone in "The Devoted Friend" varies slightly with the shifting layers of narrative at play in the story. In the frame story, in which the animals discuss friendship and the Linnet tells the story of Hans, the tone is humorous and playful. This is in line with the fable genre, as the narrators of fables tend to approach the characters and events they are recounting with a lighthearted attitude. In the inner story, the Linnet's tone is more removed and measured. He appears to prefer expressing his opinions on the events of the story and judgments of the characters indirectly, through devices like verbal irony, and so his tone remains more matter-of-fact. Filling the story with substantial portions of direct speech from Hans and the Miller, he lets the characters speak for themselves rather than imbuing the story with his own emotions.
Thus, the two narrators approach storytelling in different ways. Whereas the frame story's narrator has a playful, humorous edge, the Linnet is more restrained. It is also worth noting that the narrator of the frame story speaks in the first-person voice one time, in the very last line. After the Duck tells the Linnet that telling stories with morals is a dangerous thing, the narrator concludes the story by telling the reader, "And I quite agree with her." On the one hand, this narrator is less involved in the story's action than the Linnet, given that the latter is a character and the former never actually appears in the story. On the other hand, the narrator turns out to be willing to share personal thoughts while the Linnet never expresses his opinion in a straightforward way, always using storytelling and irony to indirectly convey his ideas.
