The Day the Trees cried.

Daisy-Lyah woke Breeze by tickling his nose with some grass. Minutes later his nose still itched as he trudged along trying not to step on Lisbeth who was saying  “Hurry, Mr. Breeze. Can’t you run?”

Daisy-Lyah was flying ahead of them. The thought of running always gave Breeze a headache so he walked.

He was thinking this had better be good to have woken me from such a delicious nap  when they came to a stop. He stared at the trees before them.

“See the trees are crying please make them stop.” Daisy-Lyah’s bottom lip was wobbling while Lisbeth was jumping up and down on Breeze’s right foot.

Breeze had never seen a tree cry and he was afraid to admit it but Breeze found this fascinating. Why would a tree cry? He wondered, they have everything they need here. Nice rich soil, loads of sunshine and rain and I talk to them. 

They must be hurt” he whispered to the two girls.  They ran away shouting, “We will get bandages”.

Breeze ran his finger along the bark of the first tree. He felt a small hole in the bark. Who would do such a thing? A flurry of movement caught his eye and Breeze saw a bird clinging to the tree a little distance away. He appeared to be tapping the wood with his beak. “Doesn’t that hurt you?” Breeze asked. “Why are you doing it?”

The bird said “I have lost my house. I had a nice home in a hole in a trunk of a tree close to here but the tree fell in the storm last winter. Now I have no home so I am trying to make one. I am searching for soft wood to make a hole to live in.”

Breeze scratched  his head and thought about this strange problem. A home for a bird. The words rattled around  his head for a while. Suddenly he said, ” I know come with me.”

When Lisbeth and Daisy-lyah returned Breeze was putting ointment on the trees. “They are not crying they are hurt, so I am putting a cream on them and you can put on a bandage, please.”

When they were finished they stood back and admired their work.

The trees wore ribbons of different colours. “They do look smart. They will heal quickly.”  He told Lisbeth and Daisy-lyah  who promised to check the bandages.

“What made them cry?” Lisbeth asked.

Breeze told her and said, “I think the problem is solved come and see.” He brought them to Hamish’s house and pointed at a tree close to the house.

There sitting on a branch was a boot sitting on its side on a branch. “It is a smelly old boot.” Daisy-lyah whispered.

“But not any old smelly boot,” Breeze said, “it is the home of a tappin bird called Fred.”

On hearing his name the bird flew out of its new home and sat on a branch singing a happy song.

The trees did stop crying and they all loved their ribbons so much Lisbeth and Daisy-lyah had a new job to do each day.