Summer Tree

It was a sweltering summer’s day, and a young man was laboring in the fields of his family farm. Early in the afternoon, his mother appeared from the farmhouse and called to the man, saying that she wanted to visit her friend on the other side of the forest, and would he take her over. He agreed and went off to prepare the horse and cart, when he had finished the mother appeared and they set off on their journey.

They arrived and entered the side of the forest in the cart and as the young man drove the cart further into the forest, he started to look and watch the creatures wandering around amongst the trees. Very soon the young man suddenly noticed that he didn’t recognise the roads that they were travelling on. He brought the horse and cart to a halt, and climbed down to tell his mother his mistake. The young man realised that the road was very narrow and that there was not enough space in the road to turn the cart around. So the man decided to walk ahead to try and find the main road.



As the young man was walking, he spotted through the trees an opening to the outside of the forest, and so he decided to walk to it. When he got there he realised this was a side of the forest that he hadn’t seen before. What he noticed next was on a small hill just ahead of him, was the most magnificent tree he had ever seen. It was three times the height and breadth of the biggest forest tree. He also noticed a dull purple glow to the whole tree, and curious of this tree, the young man made his way to the tree. When he neared it, he heard singing coming from the tree, and when he got closer he heard it for its full truth, and it was the most beautiful singing voice he had ever heard. When he was at the base of the tree, he looked up to see sitting on one of the tree branches, high up, was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. So he called out to her, but she gave no reply, so he tried again, and no answer, so he tried a final time, and she again didn’t reply. He then decided that he would climb up to her and so he started to climb onto the tree and then up it, branch after branch he climbed after this fair maid, until he realised that no matter how far he climbed, she remained as far away as before, and he was getting nowhere like this. It was only when he realised that it was going dark that he thought again of his poor mother waiting for him alone, and so he climbed back down the tree and returned to his mother.

As it had gotten so late, the young man and his mother had decided to simply return home and try the next day, but on the way home the man directed the horse and cart past where the tree was and tried to convince his mother that he had seen the most beautiful girl in the land in a tree singing, but when they got to the hill, there was no sign of the tree ever being there. The young man was confused as they returned home; he wondered if he had just imagined the tree and girl and worried all the way until he fell asleep that night in his own bed.

***

Late that night the young man awoke, and sat up, he couldn’t stop thinking about the girl in the tree. Then the man noticed that there was a dull purple glow coming through the window, and so he stood up and went to the window, and opposite the farm house on a hill, was the tree he seen earlier. So he turned and quickly dressed and ran out the front door, but the tree had disappeared again. The young man ran over to the stables and took out his house and rode it round the forest to where he had first seen the tree, and there it was, sitting waiting for him. Its purple glow was brighter now, and the man ran up to the front of the tree and looked up to see the girl, and she was there singing. He called up to her, but got no reply, he called again, and again no reply. So without hesitation, the young man climbed up the tree to try and reach her.

He climbed branch after branch, but the woman still remained so far away from him, but he was determined to reach her. The man had kept climbing for hours, until he started to notice a change in the tree, it was disappearing. The tree was starting to fade, and the young man got worried that he was going to fall until he looked down and seen that he was disappearing too! The young man tried to climb down, but he wasn’t quick enough. The tree disappeared into the darkness, and all that stood on that hill was the horse that sat down and slept.



The next morning the young man’s mother awoke to find that her son had left the house already. She thought nothing of it until that evening when he didn’t return, and so she went out to look for him, she didn’t find him and so the next day she travelled into town with some neighbours of hers. In town she seen no sign of her son, but she still didn’t give up hope, and she continued to search for her son for a full year. Eventually she returned home in the hopes that her son had returned to the farm. There was no one there when she returned and so the mother spent the night at the house. In the morning when she woke, she remembered what her son had said about the tree that he had seen the day before he disappeared, and she decided to go visit where he showed her, in the hopes that there may be some sort of clue.



When the mother arrived there, she was surprised because right in front of her she was looking at the tree that her son had spoken about; it had a purple glow to it and was a magnificent tree, just like he had said it was. She walked up to the tree and began to hear singing, she stopped and listened to the beautiful voice, and realised it was coming from high in the tree, so she looked up and spotted the girl in the tree, sitting in one of the high branches, and beside her, sat her son.

He was smiling, and the tree faded away once more.

For Heather