Bobby loved climbing up trees. One morning, he awoke and found a large tree standing outside his window. “This was not there last night when I went to sleep,” he thought.
He ran down to the garden and found that the tree was really there! It seemed to be a huge oak tree. He climbed up the tree quickly. He looked around and then he scratched his head, puzzled.
“Why are the branches so wide? They look like roads and paths,” he thought. And looking around, he saw that they were actually paths in a wood. All around him were oak trees!
“How strange! Where is the tree I climbed up?” he wondered, “I had better look for it.” And he began to hunt for the tree that he had just climbed up. But there was no sign of the tree. He went from one path to another and then came right back to where he had started. He was feeling quite dizzy going round and round.
It was also getting late. It seemed as if he had been away from home for a long time. Poor Bobby! He was tired and hungry. And now he was a little scared.
Suddenly, he saw a small man with a white beard wearing a green dress come out of a door in a tree. The green man stopped when he saw Bobby.
“Who are you?” he asked, “And what are you doing here?”
“I’m Bobby, sir. I climbed up a tree and now I’m lost! I want to go back home to Mummy and Papa, but I can’t find my way back,” cried Bobby.
“Oh, you poor child!” said the green man, “Don’t you know this is the forest of the Wicked Wizard? He lures children up into this tree which they find in their gardens. Then he comes out at night and eats them up or makes them into his slaves.”
Bobby listened in wonder and was terribly frightened. “It’ll soon be dark! What do I do now?” he asked.
“Come with me,” ordered the green man as he began to climb up a tree. Bobby followed him obediently. At the top, the green man told Bobby to sit on a large oak leaf. He whistled and out came a lot of flying squirrels. They picked up the leaf with Bobby on it and suddenly took off.
Soon Bobby was standing in his garden and the squirrels vanished. There was no tree around! “I’ll be very careful now about which tree I should climb up,” thought Bobby as he ran into the house.