A Boat to Carry Him Home – Read and Print

By Rachel Dunstan Muller, copyright 2020

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Once upon a time there was a very small boy sitting all by himself in the forest, and he was very, very sad. A little mouse heard him crying and crept up beside him. “Why are you so sad?” the mouse asked. But the little boy didn’t answer.

Tears streamed down the boy’s face, and more animals gathered at his feet. “Why are you crying?” asked a squirrel. But the boy still didn’t answer.

“Maybe he’s cold,” said a raccoon. “He doesn’t have a warm fur coat like we do.”

“Let’s build him a nest,” said a chickadee.

So, the animals built him a nest. They brought grass and twigs and moss and branches, and they wove a nest right around that little boy. They filled the nest with leaves and soft feathers, and the little boy lay down and fell fast asleep. And as he was sleeping, some of the smaller animals climbed into the nest and curled around him, to keep him snug and warm.

But when the little boy woke up later, he began to cry again. He cried so much, that his tears made a big puddle on the ground.

“Maybe he’s hungry,” said a little fox.

“Maybe he’s thirsty,” said a beaver.

So the animals gathered berries and nuts to feed the boy, and water from the river.

The boy ate the food and drank the water, but he was still sad, and so he continued to cry. He cried so much that the puddle at his feet turned into a pond. And then it began to rain!

“He’ll need a roof to keep him dry through the night,” said a porcupine.

So the animals built a roof over the nest, to keep the boy dry. The beaver was especially good at chopping down the wood they needed.

All through that night it rained and it rained, and all through that night the boy cried in his sleep. It rained and rained, and he cried and cried – until the pond grew into a lake, and then the lake grew into a great, salty sea.

When the boy woke up the next morning, there were seagulls flying over his head, and seals bobbing in the waves.

“It’s time to build a boat,” the animals agreed.

They called some of the bigger animals to help this time – a deer, a bear, and a moose. They all worked together to build a boat with a sail that was just the right size to carry the boy over the water.

As the sun was setting that evening, the animals helped the boy into the boat, and then they called the wind.

“Wind,” the animals said, “blow this boy safely across the water, to the land on the other side.”

The moon’s face was kind that night, and the wind’s breath was gentle, and the boy fell asleep again. And all through the night his little boat sailed under the stars, across the great, salty sea.

And when the little boy woke up again, he wasn’t in a boat on the water, or in a nest in the forest. He was under his own blankets, in his own warm bed, inside his own little house.

The boy’s cheeks were still damp from his tears, but he was no longer crying. He was still sad – and he knew he would be sad for a long time to come – but a new day was beginning, and he was glad to be home.

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