The Wandering Tree – Read and Print

By Rachel Dunstan Muller, copyright 2022

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There was once a little maple tree, a young sapling growing in the shade of a mighty oak tree, and a sturdy chestnut tree, and a tall beech tree. It was a happy little sapling – and why wouldn’t it be? It had everything it needed: the sun, and the rain, and the company of all the other trees in the forest.

Now, there was a narrow road that went right past the little maple tree. It wasn’t a busy road. In fact, entire days would go by when the road was completely empty. But one spring day a traveller came past, whistling a cheerful tune, with a big pack on his back and a little dog at his side. Something about that traveller caught the little tree’s attention. And as soon as the man and his dog were past, the little maple began to ask the other trees questions. Where was the man going? What else was there to see in the world? Why were people and animals able to move from place to place whenever they wanted, while trees had to stay in one spot for their entire lives?

“Oh, silly little maple,” said the oak and the chestnut and the beech trees. “That’s just the way it is. Trees don’t need to move from place to place; we get everything we need from the sun and the rain and the soil. You are very lucky to be a tree.”

But the little maple didn’t feel lucky. The more it thought about the man and his dog, the more it wanted to travel as well, to make its way down the road.

“That’s impossible!” the big trees told the little maple. “Trees can’t walk,”

But the little maple was absolutely determined to see the world. And if that meant becoming the very first tree to walk – well, so be it.

Now I can assure you, it was not easy for the little tree to pull its roots out of the ground. It took an entire day of tugging, and a night, and another day, before it was finally free. But it didn’t stop there. By the light of a full moon, the little maple used its bare roots to inch itself over the ground all the way to the road, and then over the road towards the world beyond the forest.

The little tree couldn’t move very fast, of course. In fact, a caterpillar probably could have passed it. But still, the oak and the chestnut and the beech trees were astonished. In all their long lives, they’d never seen anything like a walking tree.

“I’ll come back once I’ve seen the world,” the little maple promised. “And I’ll tell you about all my adventures.”

The little maple didn’t get very far that first night. But the fact that it had travelled any distance at all was amazing. As the sun was rising, the little tree pushed its roots into the soil beside the road. Afterall, that’s how trees get everything they need – from the soil through their roots, and from the sunshine on their leaves.

As the sun made its journey across the sky that first day, the little tree rested. But when the sun set again, and the moon rose, the little maple pulled its roots back out of the ground and continued down the road. All through that spring the tree travelled, and through the summer, and through the autumn, too. And it saw all kinds of strange and wonderful things on its journey – things it never would have seen if it had stayed in its own forest. Interesting people and places and animals. Even new trees.

But as the weather got colder and the little maple lost all its leaves, it began to grow very tired. The little tree would have liked to go home before winter came, back to its old friends and the shelter of the forest. But it was too late. Home was far away, and the little tree had run out of energy. It was time for a long winter’s nap.

The little maple had just enough strength to push its roots into the ground one last time before the snow fell, and then it went to sleep.

When the little tree woke again in the early spring, it discovered that it was in the front yard of a farmhouse. There were children playing in the yard, and one of them was standing right beside the little tree. “Look, mommy,” said the girl. “There’s a new tree growing in our yard. I love our new tree.”

Now the little maple hadn’t planned to stay. No. It had planned to pull up its roots and begin its journey back home to the forest now that the spring had returned. But the girl’s words made the tree curious. It had never spent time with children before, and so it decided to stay where it was – just for a day or two.

Well, a day or two became a week, and then a month, and then an entire season. The tree was enjoying the company of the girl and her siblings. It was fun to hear them laugh and play. And so, time passed. Before the tree knew it, the first frost was on the ground. And once again, it was too late for the tree to make the journey home.

And so it went. The children grew every year, and so did the maple tree. Until one spring the tree woke up and realized that it was too late to ever return back to the forest. The tree was now taller than the farmhouse, and its roots went much too deep to pull out of the ground. The poor maple was sad then. It loved its new home and the family in the farmhouse, but it also loved its old home in the forest, and its friends, the oak and chestnut and beech trees. And now it knew it would never see them again.

The maple tree sighed with such sadness then, that all its branches shook. A robin perched on one of those branches felt the tree sigh, and asked it what was the matter.

The tree told the robin everything, how it had started its life in a far away forest. How it had had everything it needed – the sun and the rain and the company of the other trees. And how, despite its happiness, it had decided to pull up its roots and see the world.

“But I promised I would go back one day,” said the maple.  “And that I would tell the oak and the chestnut and the beech trees about my adventures. But now I’m too big. I can never go back.”

The little robin had a kind heart. She was sad as she listened to the maple tree – at first. But then she had an idea. “If you tell me about your adventures, I’ll fly to your forest and share everything you’ve told me with your friends. And I’ll do something more, besides.”

So, the maple tree shared all its adventures with the robin. And when the tree was done, the little robin picked up something in its beak and flew off to find the maple tree’s friends.

The mighty oak, and the sturdy chestnut, and the tall beech tree were delighted to meet the robin, and to hear all about the maple tree’s adventures. But they were even more delighted with the gift the robin had carried them in her beak. And do you know what she’d brought? She’d brought a seed from the maple tree. And she planted that seed in the earth, right where the maple tree had started its life as a sapling many years before.

And so it was that a new maple tree grew in the shade of the mighty oak, and the sturdy chestnut, and the tall beech tree. It was a happy little sapling – and why wouldn’t it be? It had everything it needed: the sun, and the rain, and the company of all the other trees in the forest.

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