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Fitting Punishment.

The day is sunny and warm with a light breeze blowing from the west. In the woods were an elderly woman, a man and myself. The elderly woman and the man were not together and it seemed that the elderly woman was avoiding the man. I watched as the man crept near to the woman and then heard him shouting some very rude things to the elderly woman. The last I heard him say was that she; the woman was stealing the food that nature provides for all the creatures of the woods.

The woman protested that she only collected a few blackberries and wild strawberries and later on, some nuts and that she meant no harm. I wanted to say something in defence of the elderly woman but she needed no protection from me. Suddenly she picked up a twig that was lying on the ground and pointing it at the man she said, “Three months long will you observe all that goes on in these woods, I hope that you learn a lesson from this my punishment.” The man changed so quickly from a man into a small tree that if I had not have seen it myself I would not have believed it.

The elderly woman went on with plucking the wild strawberries and without looking at the tree she moved on out of my sight. I often saw the tree during the summer months and asked myself if what I saw was true. Like all summers we had rainy days and days of bright sunshine, I often saw the elderly woman going about her business. The blackberries ripened and she came to pick these she knew all about the different mushrooms and took many a basket home with her. On the rare occasions that we met, we exchanged greetings but nothing of the new tree in the woods.

The tree witnessed a fairy ball and from the way its branches and leaves shook it was excited. As a man, he had never seen anything like the dancing and singing. The fairy cakes that seemed to be coming from out of the air looked very inviting but as a tree he had no way of joining in the feast. The orchestra of Leprechauns playing music such as he had never heard before delighted his very being. Wild night animals came to see the Fairies having a good time this too was a surprise for the man now a tree. He began to regret his bad behaviour toward the elderly woman and to himself he made a vow that in future he would alter his ways.

Then it happened I was in the woods once more, this time I was collecting a few chestnuts. I saw the woman go to the tree and once more she picked up a twig from the floor and pointing it at the tree, she said something and the tree changed back into a man again. I was close enough to hear what she said to the man. “Have you learned your lesson? The fruits and nuts and other things to eat are for all the creatures of the wilds. Even we humans have the right to harvest what nature provides for us. I only take enough to make a meal or medicines for my own use. The animals also only take what they need to survive through the long winters.

The man mumbled that he was sorry and had learned much about the woods and its creatures. He even ended by thanking the woman for turning him into a tree he now knew more about the woods and animals than he would have learned in a lifetime. Now I often see them in the woods but they are respectful of each other and there is no disharmony anymore. The Fairies often came to the tree to play it was part of Fairyland this neither the man nor the elderly woman knew to them it was just part of the woods.