The Laughing Tree

The Laughing Tree

by Linda Jo Martin

Once upon a time a brown-eyed girl sat down next to a big tree in the forest to eat her lunch. She opened her bag and found a bit of white bread and a chunk of cheese, and pulled them out to nibble on, but something didn’t feel right.

“Is someone watching me?” she asked, but there was no answer.

She looked around – but all she saw was a little mouse under a bush, and he wasn’t looking at her. He was crying, looking down at the ground.

“What’s the matter, little mouse?” she asked.

Mice can’t talk so it said nothing in reply. She picked off a tiny bit of cheese and a few crumbs of bread and slowly reached out to set them near the mouse. It looked up then, saw her gifts, and scampered close to eat them. Then it ran off into the forest and she never saw it again.

She finished her lunch and tucked the empty bag into her pocket, and fell asleep. When she woke up it was almost dark, and snowing. She pulled her cloak close around her and got up to leave, but every time she took a step she slipped in the snow and fell.

Then she heard laughter. It was soft and quiet at first, but every time she fell down it got louder.

“Who is it?” she called out. “Why are you laughing at me?”

“It is I, the spirit of the tree! I laugh because you’re trying too hard.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have been here many years, and never tried to walk away. Where do you think you’re going anyway?”

The girl looked up at the tree and saw a face with cheery eyes. Yes, this did seem strange at first, but she was glad to have someone to talk to. “I’m going home,” she told the tree. “My parents will miss me if I don’t get home before dark.”

“Is it far?” the tree asked.

“I don’t know. I think I’m lost.”

“So you don’t really know where you’re going, do you?” The tree smiled.

The girl tilted her head and stared at that smile. “You think it’s funny?” she asked. “You laughed when I fell down? What kind of tree ARE you, anyhow?”

“I’m an old tree, a Laughing Tree. And I can save you.”

Her eyes widened. “I could use help right now. It is cold, and getting colder, and I might not make it home because I don’t know where to go.”

“Come up here,” the tree offered, and lowered a big, thick branch for her to climb on.

Carefully she climbed onto the branch and it lifted her high.

“There now. What do you see?” the tree asked.

“I see your leaves, and more branches.”

“No, I mean, what do you see from on high? Can you see your house yet?”

She looked around. “No, I don’t see it. I see other trees all around us.”

The Laughing Tree giggled and lowered a higher branch for her to climb onto. She did so and gently glided upward, clinging to her host.

“Now do you see it?” the tree asked.

She looked around. Finally she could see over the other treetops, but still couldn’t find her house. “No, maybe the house is lost too.”

Again the tree giggled. “It has to be there where you left it. Let’s try again.” A third branch, one of the highest the Laughing Tree had, was lowered to the little girl, who wrapped her arms around it as it lifted her higher than ever before.

“I see it! I see it!” the little girl cried, for not far away on the other side of a hillock the roof of her house came into view.

“Great! Now I’m putting you down, down, down,” the Laughing Tree said. Gently the tree lowered the girl, one branch at a time, until she reached the ground.

“Thank you, Laughing Tree,” the girl said with a smile, and she started to walk away. Again, she fell in the snow and the Laughing Tree laughed.

“Earlier I saw you feed a little mouse,” the tree said. “Your kindness should be rewarded. I will make a path in the snow.” And with that, the Laughing Tree blew, and blew, and blew until all the snow was blown away in a long straight path that led the little girl to her home.

From that day on the little girl visited the Laughing Tree often. She talked to it and told it all her secrets, but the tree never spoke to her or laughed at her again.

 

© 2011 – Linda Jo Martin