In a beautiful forest, full of flowers and butterflies, there lived a little tree named Timmy. Timmy had a big wish: he wanted to grow tall and become the biggest tree in the forest. But sadly, he was just a little tree, with a small trunk and tiny branches. He often looked up at the other trees and sighed, wishing to be like them.
“Oh, how I want to be tall and see far away like the other trees,” he said to the woodland creatures who passed by.
“But, dear Little Timmy,” said an old man tree whose branches were full of sweet bird nests, “You are still quite small and haven’t grown much yet. One day you will become tall like me.”
“But I want to be so tall,” sighed Little Timmy, “and see far away. The wind keeps saying, ‘Timmy, grow, grow,’ but I don’t seem to grow at all.”
Spring came with bright sunshine and showers, and many birds built nests in the woods and sang, “Little tree, Little tree, how happy you will be.” Timmy looked around and saw that every little tree in the forest was growing fast, except him.
Soon, he could bear the worry over his slow growth no longer. So he called the other trees to counsel. After much discussion, the famous inventor Mr. Woodpecker gave the best advice: “Timmy should make himself a kite. A few feathers tied to strings would soon make him grow.”
So all the birds flew around, pulling out feathers from their tails, and collected them together for Timmy. A long strong string was found, and the kite was fastened firmly to the top of Little Timmy’s highest branch.
“Now Little Timmy can climb up his kite as high as it can pull him,” said Woodpecker.
Timmy started to climb, and while he climbed the kite flew higher and higher. Suddenly a gust of wind came and broke the string. Timmy fell down, but the other trees held their breath because it looked like he had hurt himself. But Timmy was happy and exclaimed: “Do you see, I am growing? Look how big my branch is! And soon everybody will know I am a tree after all, and not a little weed!”
Gradually, Little Timmy grew a little every year, and then grew more. The wind, birds, bees, and all creatures helped him in every way they could.
But the biggest thing Timmy did was this: He was so small that many little woodland creatures lived among his roots. Little birds used to perch on his tiny branches and sing, and birds, squirrels, and all sorts of animals often slept in his shade, for he was very, very friendly.
And thus Little Timmy grew along with the birds he had grown for. Even the oldest trees said: “How very useful Little Timmy is, even if he doesn’t grow very fast.”
Many years afterward, when Timmy was a very big tree with a big trunk, all the little creatures used to store the acorns, for timber-growing is very useful work. And Loud-Talking Tanya said, “Isn’t it funny to think that once upon a time, I used to hop about as if I was a wild hare, while that tree there had a hook on his branch, and tried to lift up so much iron stuff and laughed at us if we didn’t just give Mother Tree a kiss?”
And Mother Tree nodded her head faintly, for she remembered how several acorn-cobs had poked her nose. So in the autumn when the little kids were gathering nuts, all the older ones gathered their golden leaves and celebrated Timmy’s whole life.