Jonathan’s Tree – Read and Print

By Rachel Dunstan Muller, copyright 2021

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The day that Jonathan was born, his grandfather planted a tree in Jonathan’s backyard – a special tree. Jonathan was a very tiny baby, and the tree – well, it was a very small tree.

But Jonathan didn’t stay tiny. He ate and slept and got lots of love, and he grew quickly – from a baby to a toddler. Outside the sun shone on the tree’s leaves, and the rain brought water to its roots – and it grew quickly as well – more quickly than anyone could imagine.

As soon as Jonathan could walk on his own, he toddled straight out to that tree and threw his arms around it. And as soon as he could talk, he looked up and said, “I love you, tree.”

And Jonathan did love his tree, more and more with each passing year. In the spring its new leaves were pale green. In the fall, they turned red and gold. But the summer was Jonathan’s favourite season. During the day he played under the tree’s shade. At night, he listened to its leaves whispering in the breeze. “Sleep tight, Jonathan,” the tree whispered. “All is well. All is well.”

One year for his birthday, Jonathan’s grandfather made him a swing and hung it from a sturdy branch. Jonathan spent hours under his tree that summer, swinging back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

Another year, Jonathan’s grandfather built him a tree house. It had a floor and a roof and a rope ladder, and it was Jonathan’s favourite place to daydream.

On his birthday the next year – Jonathan climbed to the very top of his tree, higher than he’d ever climbed before. As he held on carefully, he could see his entire neighbourhood in every direction. And way off in the distance, he saw a flash of blue. It was the ocean, many miles away. “I’m going to sail that ocean one day,” he told the tree. “Just you wait and see.”

But the year after that, just a few days before Jonathan’s birthday, there was an enormous storm. All night long Jonathan listened as the wind howled and the rain beat against his window. All night long he listened as his tree shuddered and groaned in the wind. And then just before morning, Jonathan heard the sound he’d been dreading – a crack like thunder and then a crash of branches as his beloved tree toppled to the ground.

Jonathan’s grandfather hurried over at first light and found Jonathan huddled in the wreckage of leaves and broken branches. “Oh, Jonathan,” said his grandfather. And he opened his arms to hold Jonathan tight.

But this story isn’t over yet. You see, with his grandfather’s help, Jonathan used the wood from his tree to build a boat. It took them a whole year to saw that wood, and dry it out, and piece it all together, but when the boat was finished, it was just big enough for two. And Jonathan and his grandfather took that boat down to the ocean and together they went sailing on the bright blue water. And when his grandfather was turned in the other direction, Jonathan leaned over the little boat and whispered, “I still love you, tree.”

But here’s the best part. Not long after Jonathan and his grandfather cleared away all the broken limbs and branches, Jonathan found a little sapling growing in the grass – a little baby tree. And the sun shone on the sapling’s leaves, and the rain brought water to its roots – and it grew quickly – more quickly than Jonathan could have imagined.

The very next spring, the tree’s new leaves were pale green. In the autumn, they turned red and gold. And as he fell asleep at night, Jonathan listened to those leaves whispering in the breeze. “Sleep tight, Jonathan,” the tree whispered. “All is well. All is well.”

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