THE WISHING TREE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 840, 7 December 1929, Page 35

THE WISHING TREE

Once there was a straight road with j hedges on either side, but no trees to ! give shade to travellers, yet one morning the people were astonished to find , that a wonderful tree had grown up in i the night with branches so wide that j half the village could have sheltered i under it. At the foot of the tree a , rustic seat had appeared by magic. • “How strange,” the people said, and ’ wagged their heads and gossiped about j It. The first person who sought shade under the tree was a little old man with a whit© beard and a crooked back. Ho had travelled a long way, and he sighed as he leaned back against the tree’s smooth bole. ‘‘Oh dear,” he said, “how weary I am. If only I were twenty years younger.” Suddenly he found himself just middle-aged and with a straight back and a fine brown beard. “This place is bewitched,” he said, and hurried off. The next to pause under the tree was a woman with a sick child in her arms. “Oh,” she wailed, “my baby will die, for I shall never reach the doctor’s in time. How I wish she would get well.” The baby sat up in her arms and laughed and crowed. “A-miracle has happened,” said the woman. Then a child came along. “I am sure there are fairies,” she said, “and I wish I could prove it.” “You have just shut one up in your lesson book,” piped a tiny voice. “Please let me out.” And a green clad pixie scampered away in the beside her. “Bother,” said a schoolboy. “I forgot to put an apple in my lunch bag. I wish I had one.” Down fell an apple right into his hand. “But that’s not an apple tree,” he said in bewilderment. Now in the village there lived a miser, and before long he heard of the strange powers of the wishing, tree. Stealthily he crept to it and sat,down on the rustic seat. “I wish I had all the gold in the world,” he said greedily. In a trice the tree and the rustic seat had vanished, and he found himself sprawling on the ground. “I am the spirit of the wishing tree,” said a stern voice, “but by your greed and cunning you have destroyed my home. You have also destroyed my power of bringing happiness to your race. Begone ere I do you an injury.” And after that the straight road followed its course from here to there with no wishing tree to give shade or pleasure to travellers. —W.S.T.