Matthew has written a story about a tree. If you have ever read “The Giving Tree” (which is, reading it as an adult and parent, perhaps the most depressing book that was ever written), don’t worry, this one seems like it’s headed in that direction but ends up in a different place.
Enjoy.
Tree Story
by Matthew
There once was a tree at the edge of a pond full of cheerful fish. It did not have a name because it was a tree. It was an old tree. People had been ignoring the tree for decades, and that was how the tree liked it.
One day, a man named Ben came along with a saw and hacked off one of the tree’s branches to make a fishing pole. The tree was outraged and would have shouted angrily if only trees had mouths. The tree would have chased after the person in a rage if only trees had legs. The tree would have campaigned on behalf of a mayoral candidate who disapproved of cutting tree branches if only trees had the right to vote.
But as it was, the tree just had to stand there and suffer.
Fortunately, being a tree, the loss of one branch was not such a big deal.
However, the next day, Ben’s friend Randy came by and hacked off a branch, too. This made the tree so mad it wanted to say a naughty word. But it had to settle for thinking a naughty word, in which it took some small degree of comfort.
Ben and Randy were part of a bowling league, and they told all of their friends in the league about what great fishing poles they had made out of branches from the tree. Day after day, they came and took branches, which made the tree so sad he hardly knew what to do.
But, being a tree, he did nothing. It’s hard to be a tree.
Eventually, the tree had no more branches down low where Ben and his rowdy friends could reach them. So Ben and his rowdy friends stopped coming to the pond.
Eventually…and this is the great part about being a tree, new branches sprouted where the old ones had been. Eventually stronger, better branches grew in their place.
By this time, Randy and his friends were all in wheelchairs with bad knees.
But the tree was as happy as he’d ever been. Trees usually get the last laugh.
One of the interesting things about this story is that Matthew (without having done any research at all) has written about one of the tree facts that I found most interesting: trees (apparently) don’t die of old age. They are only killed – generally by insects, disease, or people. So if you grew a tree in a spot where none of those things could get to it, it could, possibly, live forever! But since no one has done that and we also wouldn’t be able to PROVE “forever” I guess we’ll never know.
ps: How many matchsticks does the average tree produce? A quick google search says “one million.” That’s a silly number. I’m pretty sure it is totally unsubstantiated. What are the odds that the average would equal such a nice round number? The moral of the story is: don’t trust google.