Lily Green and the Tree Fellers

Lily Green and The Tree Fellers

It is the last day of the Easter holidays and Lily Green is lying in a big puddle of sunshine under the Chestnut tree on Bottle Bank Lane.

Lily is eight years old. She has eyes as green as early acorns and a scattering of nutty freckles, like daisies on a lawn. She stretches out and tickles her cat Compo under his chin, which makes him fall over with happiness and waggle his legs in the air.

At the moment Compo is Lily's best friend in the whole world. He is a big stinky mog, who Lily's mum calls Compo because he smells like a compost heap. He adores Lily and she adores him.

Of course Lily has loads of human friends too but Raj and Sunita, the terrible twins, are off visiting their aunt for the holidays. Priscilla is at horse-riding school all week and even Lily's big brother Bertie is camping with friends, so Lily is feeling a bit lonely and happy to have Compo for company.

You see, Sophie Crump, her best friend in the whole world, is only next door. But Lily's mum had an argument with Mrs. Crump, and Sophie and Lily aren't allowed to play at each other's houses any more. Lily thinks this is a shame because Sophie will have lots of delicious Easter eggs and she always enjoys going to Sophie's because they are allowed to watch cartoons on television and get tangled up in Mrs. Crump's wardrobe full of fancy clothes.

Lily doesn't really understand what her mum and Sophie's mum were arguing about, but it had something to do with the Crumps' new car and what Lily's mum called a "Gas Guzzling Snort. When she came home after the argument, Lily's mum was very red in the face and ate a lot of Granny Green's homemade biscuits all at once.

So Lily hasn't seen Sophie all holidays and hasn't eaten any Easter eggs either. Lily's mum says she doesn't believe in Easter eggs but on Sunday morning she made a big chocolate cake and Lily and Granny Green blew all the insides out of some ordinary eggs and painted them with pictures of birds and rabbits, ready to hang from the Easter tree on the table, which was fun, but probably not as fun as eating great big, sticky rainbow coloured eggs with Sophie.

But under her favourite tree at the front of her house Lily is happy. Compo too. He loves to be tickled and blows big bubbles of joyful snot out of his nose, which explode into crystals of a million different colours in the sunlight. When this happens, Lily thinks the grubby old cat is the most beautiful thing she has ever seen and rolls over and over with him in the grass.

Their playful afternoon is interrupted suddenly by the sound of voices from the Crump's front drive. Lily, who has always been a little bit nosey, sits up sharply and holds her breath so that she can hear the voices but they can't hear her.

Luckily she is quite camouflaged, which means she blends in with the grass and the tree bark, because she is wearing a sludgy brown skirt and a sludgy green tee-shirt and her face is a bit covered in sludge from where she was digging potatoes at lunch time with Granny Green and forgot to wash. Lily's mum made the skirt from an old pair of curtains, which used to be a tablecloth. Lily's mum likes to recycle things lots of times, which means use them again and again instead of throwing them away.

For example, at Lily's eighth birthday party just after Christmas, Lily's mum made all the kids drink their juice from old yoghurt pots instead of party cups. Raj said that it tasted like the juice was recycled too, which was very rude of him (I'm sure you know what he meant), which made Priscilla recycle her carrot cake all over the rug.

Lily listens very carefully and stretches her neck really high to see what the people in the Crumps' garden are talking about. They seem to be pointing at Lily's tree and one of the men is wearing a yellow helmet and writing things on a clip-board which makes him look very official. Next to him Mr. Crump is wearing a suit (Mr. Crump always wears a suit, probably even in the bath) and he is making signals with his arms between the tree and the windows of his house. He sweeps his arm around the garden and then points angrily back to the tree.

Lily is puzzled, but she has a funny fizzy feeling down deep in her wellies, and this is not a good sign.

The man with the clipboard takes off his yellow hat and gets into a little van which is parked next to Mr. Crump's shiny silver car in the driveway. Lily is a little bit frightened of Mr. Crump's car, the one that her mum called a snort, because it has headlights like scowly eyes and lots of metal at the front which look like gnashing teeth. Lily is also a bit scared of Mr. Crump, but it doesn't stop her from opening her eyes very wide to look at him so that she doesn't miss a single detail.

The man's van has a big sign saying "Council on the side of it. As he prepares to drive off he opens his window and says cheerfully to Mr. Crump: "So we'll be back with the tree felling equipment in a few days. Cheerio then. Lily feels her wellies go clammy. Even though she doesn't know what the man meant, she knows that something is not right. Felling sounds awfully like falling, don't you think? Lily doesn't like the idea of her tree falling one little bit.

Lily lies beneath her tree until the sun goes cold and Compo starts to get peckish. She nearly misses her mum calling her in for tea because she is so busy thinking about what she has heard, which is really nothing at all, but is very worrying all the same.

At tea time, while Lily's mum and Granny Green discuss their plans for the spring vegetable patch, Lily wonders whether it is wise to share her worries with the grown ups. She doesn't want her Mum dashing over to the Crumps and getting into another fight. On the other hand, she doesn't really know what tree felling is and she feels sure that either her Mum or Granny Green would be able to help. Eventually Lily's mum notices that something is up with Lily, because she hasn't eaten her cheesy peas, even though they're her favourite.

"What's up Tiger Lil? she asks, ruffling her daughter's curly hair.
"Mum, Lily enquires. "What's tree felling?
"Well it's when trees are cut down because they are sick, or to make wood, or just because really, replies Lily's mum. "Why?
"No reason replies Lily, and quickly gobbles a couple of peas so that she may leave the table.

As she gets ready for bed that evening, Lily looks out of her bedroom window at the big tree and feels a mixture of sadness and anger. She can see the white blossoms shining like candles in the evening light, and Compo chasing a moth around and around the tree trunk, like a very fat, furry ballerina. She knows that her tree is not sick and isn't needed for wood and she has a fairly good feeling that people are planning to cut it down just because.

She remembers that when she was a very little girl, she used to find the tree with its dark wobbly shadows and creaky branches outside her bedroom window frightening. One night she heard a scary noise which seemed to come from the tree and woke up Granny Green who climbed in to bed with her and told her not to be so silly.

"That tree, Granny Green had said that night, "is there to protect little girls. It stands outside your window with its big arms stretched out like a hug and bats all the bad dreams away. Granny Green also said that the scary noise was probably just Lily's mum snoring in her bedroom down the hall.

And when Lily was afraid of the door in the roof of her bedroom that led to the dusty old loft, Granny Green explained to her that the fairies used the roof door to come in while Lily was sleeping and sprinkle lucky freckles on her nose. "Look, Granny Green had said. "You can see the fairies dancing in the tree, because they keep the lucky freckles in the conker shells and sure enough, the tree was lit up with tiny white fairy blossoms dancing in the moonlight.

Now that she's bigger, Lily isn't scared at all in the night but she likes the idea that the tree is there to protect her just in case. She does not like the idea of the tree fellers one little bit.

Granny Green always says that problems seem easier in the morning, and it is true that by breakfast time the next day Lily is feeling a bit less worried and a lot more positive, which means that she has a plan up her sleeve. After gobbling down a hearty breakfast to make up for her lack of tea last night, she begins to make a list in her head.

First of all she has to find a way to talk to Sophie without her mum finding out. Sophie will know what the tree fellers are doing and when they are planning to do it. Secondly, she will do what she always does in troublesome times; she will go and visit Mrs. Woolly up the lane.

After breakfast Lily stays put at the kitchen table watching her Mum carefully writing labels to go on the jars of homemade jam and chutneys that she sells at the market. Lily's mum is actually a poet, but she has to do other things too, otherwise they wouldn't have any money at all and Lily's mum says they would have to live on crumbs and worms, like sparrows.

Lily stays in the kitchen because she knows that Mr. Crump and Mrs. Crump go shopping on a Saturday morning, while Sophie stays at home with her big sister Ella, and Lily wants to hear the car engine start which will show that the coast is clear. Even if Lily doesn't hear them leave herself, Lily will know that they have gone because Lily's mum will look like she's eaten a million salty slugs as soon as she hears the car start. And everyone knows that Mums have supersonic hearing.

Sure enough, at about quarter to ten, Lily hears her mum make a funny growling noise and sees her turn her eyes to the ceiling. Then she hears the snort backing out of the driveway and making its way down Bottle Bank Lane. Lily counts to eight, opens her eyes very wide so that she looks like she's up to nothing at all, and slides away from the table. Picking up the vegetable basket, which is the closest thing to hand, she slips off into the garden as if she is going to pick some lettuces. Then she runs very quickly down the garden, and hops through a broken bit in the fence onto Sophie's very neat and tidy lawn.

From the back of the house she can see Sophie sitting in her very neat and tidy living room wearing a very neat and tidy dress watching the giant TV. Lily bangs on the window with a floppy and forgotten carrot that she finds in the vegetable basket. When she hears the noise Sophie looks up and grins the biggest, widest grin that Lily has ever seen, which makes Lily's insides steam up with happiness.

For a few minutes the girls jump about like happy frogs and talk over the top of each other without really listening, until Lily realises that her mum (with her supersonic ears) might hear and shushes Sophie as quickly as she can.

"I'm not supposed to be here, Sophie, she admits, creeping into the shadow of the doorway, "but I need you to tell me something. Lily explains to Sophie all about the man in the yellow hat and the council van and the tree fellers. To Lily's annoyance, Sophie doesn't look very shocked at all.

"My dad called the council, explains Sophie, as if it was perfectly normal (and, to be honest, as if Lily was a bit thick) "because the tree blocks the light to the kitchen in the mornings. He wants them to cut it down so that mum and Ella can sunbathe in the front garden too.

Lily gapes her mouth open like a toad. "Sophie! She squeals. "You can't cut a tree down just because you want to sunbathe in your garden. Do you know how long that tree has been there? Lily hopes quickly that Sophie doesn't ask her how long the tree has been there because she realises that she doesn't have a clue, but she knows it must be a really really long time.

Once in Miss. Pertwee's class they learned how to tell the age of a tree from looking at how many lines were on the trunk, but you had to cut the tree down to count them, which seemed a bit of a waste of a really old tree, although Lily remembers that you can also tell by looking at the thickness of the tree trunk and she knows that she can't even fit her arms around her tree so it must be ancient, probably even older than Granny Green.

Sophie seems a bit surprised that Lily thinks the tree fellers are a bad idea but she listens very carefully to what Lily says and promises to find out from her dad exactly when the tree fellers are coming and what they are planning to do. Lily tells her she has to go home but they plan to meet up before tea, in disguise, under the old tree. Sophie agrees and Lily bounces off home to get ready for her visit to Mrs. Woolly.

Mrs. Woolly is the oldest person in the village, even older than Granny Green. She is also the kindest lady Lily has ever met. And the wisest, which means she knows the answers to pretty much everything. After stopping to pick up a handful of Granny Green's ginger snaps and brush her hair, Lily heads up the lane to Mrs. Woolly's cottage.

Lily loves visiting Mrs. Woolly's cottage with all its old pictures and knickknacks. She could sit for hours stroking Mrs. Woolly's sleepy old dog Malcolm and just looking around her living room. Mrs. Woolly welcomes Lily inside with a big plump powdery hug and makes her a cup of sweet tea and they swap gossip for a long time. Lily tells her about her Easter holidays, about the fight that her mum had with Mrs. Crump and about the tree fellers.
Lily is very pleased that Mrs. Woolly looks angry when she tells her about the tree fellers. Mrs. Woolly shakes her head and makes a funny clackety clack noise with her teeth. "Folk can't go around pulling down trees just because it gets in the way of their sunbathing habits, she says. Lily and the old lady look out of Mrs. Woolly's squinty front windows towards the tree, where Compo is lying surrounded by floating blossom like a big happy bear in a snow storm. Lily tells Mrs. Woolly that she doesn't know what to do and Mrs. Woolly gives Lily's hair a ruffle and goes to fetch and old box from her bedroom.

The box is decorated with delicate lace and ribbons that have gone yellow with age. It smells like old books and lets off a puff of dust when Mrs. Woolly takes the lid off. Lily feels her wellies fizz with excitement, even though she doesn't know what it contains. Mrs. Woolly sits very still for a few minutes peering dreamily inside the box and then she picks out some very very old photographs and passes them to Lily.

The photographs are of a big group of smart and smiling people. In the middle of all of them is a very pretty young woman wearing a floaty white dress and flowers in her hair and a nice looking man wearing a big smile and a soldier's uniform. In the middle of everything is Lily's tree. "My wedding, explains Mrs. Woolly. "It was August 1941. Hot as you like. My Edwin had just three days leave from the army and he walked ten miles from his fathers home just to get to the church in the village for our wedding.
Mrs. Woolly's eyes turn shiny like the village pond and Lily looks very hard at the photograph so that Mrs. Woolly doesn't feel embarrassed. She can tell it is late summer in the pictures because the spiky conker shells in the tree are clearly visible and bursting with chestnuts among the shimmering leaves. An older lady, maybe an Aunt or Mrs. Woolly's mother, is pouring cold drinks from a pitcher on a table laid out with a lacy cloth under the tree. The photograph is so busy with happy people that it almost seems to move.

Mrs. Woolly pulls picture upon picture from the box, some crackly and bent around the edges because they are so old, and Lily greedily studies each one, eager to see the outfits and the expressions of the people in them. And there at the centre of each photo is her tree, sheltering all the wedding guests from the beating of the August sun and binding them together as one big happy group.

After a very long time Mrs. Woolly looks at Lily and says "You see little Lil, what you have to do is show the council and those Crumps that the tree is more important to those who want to keep it than those who want rid of it.

When Lily leaves Mrs. Woolly's house she feels almost joyful and skips up the lane towards home. On the way she scoops up Compo, who has fallen asleep in a pile of leaves under the tree and gives him an unwelcome hug. He mews grumpily and blasts her with stinky sleepy breath, before settling down to snooze against her shoulder. Because she is so excited, she gives the tree a quick one-armed hug and promises it silently that it will be there for many years to come.

She has a few hours until it is time to meet Sophie under the tree so Lily goes up to her bedroom and pulls her Easter project out from her school bag. Lily finished the project right at the start of the holidays so that she would have more time to play but she knows now that if she is going to get enough people to help her with her plans to save the tree from the fellers, she's going to have to start all over again, and she only has two days to do it. Her first project is about the history of the village church but there is really nothing in there that will help with her new project, the Horse Chestnut Tree on Bottle Bank Green.

Lily selects a handful of fat books from the shelf in her room, her colouring pencils from her satchel and her thinking cap from her top drawer. Some people talk about thinking caps as if they don't really exist but Lily's does and it sits over her tumbling black curls and keeps the cogs in her brain rotating. She goes downstairs and settles at the kitchen table, collecting a glass of juice on the way. "Horse Chestnut Tree, she writes, at the top of a clean piece of paper. "Aesculus hippocastanum, she puts the tree's Latin name too, to make it sound more important (and hopefully to impress Mr. Barnfather, her teacher, into letting her involve the whole class in her tree rescue plans).

For the next hour Lily reads and reads about Horse Chestnut trees. How they were introduced to England from somewhere called The Balkans in 1600, a very long time ago, and how deer and sheep like to eat the conkers, and how once the flowers have gone in late spring, they turn into spiky cases which hold the shiny brown chestnuts that kids all over the country use for playing conkers and other autumn games.

She is so engrossed in her research that it takes her several minutes to realize that a figure is leaping up and down under the tree trying to get her attention. It is Sophie, at first glance dressed like an abominable snowman, but on closer inspection it appears that she is wearing a very expensive full length adult fur coat. Lily pulls on Granny Green's gardening hat and Brother Bertie's mackintosh and joins her under the tree.

The girls hunker down out of the sight of their parents and Sophie tells Lily all that she knows about the tree fellers. "They're coming on Tuesday afternoon at four o'clock, she says finally, which makes Lily's wellies go hot and cold alternately.

Lily explains to Sophie that she plans to fight the council and how she is changing her school project to try and get the other kids in her class to help her. She also tells her about her visit to Mrs. Woolly and about the wedding party under the tree, which she feels sure will persuade Sophie to be on her side, because Sophie loves weddings ever since she was her cousin's bridesmaid last year.

When Lily goes back inside for tea, Lily's mum is very suspicious and asks who she was talking to outside. Lily fibs and tells her that it was Priscilla, because she knows that her mum is a bit absent minded and will have forgotten that Priscilla is at pony camp for the holidays. Luckily Saturday night is Lily's mum's band practice night and she is in a hurry to be off so she doesn't push Lily further. Instead Lily's mum plonks a Shepherd's Pie on the table for Lily and Granny Green's tea, wraps her turban around her head and wobbles off to the village hall on her bicycle with her guitar strapped to her back.

After tea, Lily settles back down to her books and works until the patches of sunlight from the kitchen window fade to tiny shimmery rectangles. She draws pictures of chestnut trees and colours them in three shades of green, she lists the history of Chestnut trees in England and gives some examples of famous trees that still exist today. Finally Granny Green brings her a cup of hot chocolate and tells her firmly that it is time to put the books away for tonight.

Lily gladly follows Granny Green into the chaotic living room, which means that it is very untidy, although Lily's mum insists that she knows where everything belongs. Even though it is nearly summertime, Granny Green has lit a fire and has been sitting on the lumpy multicoloured sofa with Compo, knitty clicking away. Granny Green doesn't really knit anything in particular; she just knits for the enjoyment of it all, sometimes pulling the odd snakey shapes into scarves or hats for Lily and Big Brother Bertie.

Lily cuddles up on the sofa and shifts Compo on to her knee. She decides to tell Granny Green all about the tree fellers and ask her advice. Granny Green listens very carefully and then after a long silence says, "well we'll see about that, won't we, in a very grim voice.

Lily explains about her project and about how she is going to try and get her class to help her but how she doesn't know what to do, and Granny Green says exactly what Mrs. Woolly said earlier, that they had to prove what the tree means to the people who want to save it, and her face lights up like a spring daffodil as she suddenly has an idea. "We'll have a party for the tree. A great big party, with cakes and singing and dancing and we'll show the whole world how much we want to save the tree.

Lily is so grateful to Granny Green she bounces on the sofa and scatters crumbs and knitting and Compo all over the floor. Over more cups of chocolate, and several slices of homemade vanilla sponge, Grandmother and Granddaughter plan a great big party on Bottle Bank Green, to which they will invite the whole village, and the people from the newspapers and television and also the people from the council, to celebrate the Horse Chestnut tree and save it from the fellers.

It is not until it is quite dark outside and Lily hears her mum's bike ping against the garden gate that she remembers something really important that bursts her bubble of high spirits once more. "But Granny, she says sadly. "The tree fellers are coming on Tuesday. Granny Green screws up her face like an old walnut and holds Lily's hand. "We'll see about that, she says again.

On Monday morning Lily bounces out of bed, excited about seeing Raj and Sunita and Priscilla again, and quickly dresses for school. She knows that before lunch she will have to present her project to the whole class and she is confident that she finished it properly last night and that she can get the support of all the other kids and maybe even of Mr. Barnfather, her favourite teacher.

Big brother Bertie is sitting at the kitchen table, grumpily eating a bowl of porridge and looking not very pleased at all to be going back to school after two weeks of camping in the open. He looks a bit natural himself, with nutty brown skin and wild, wooly hair. Lily's good mood seems not to cheer him up terribly much, and he slopes off to school in a sulk. Lily eats her porridge quickly and hops on her bike, setting off across the green to school. On her way she waves to Sophie and Ella in the snort, being driven to school by their mum. Sophie goes to the girl's school in town, a few miles away, and doesn't look very pleased to be doing so either.

At school Lily meets up with Raj and Sunita and Priscilla in the front playground, and they all leap about like spring crickets, chirping over each other excitedly and admiring Priscilla's bruise from where a horse bit her on the leg. Raj and Sunita tell stories of their holiday in London and the galleries they have visited and the fancy food they have eaten, and Lily fills them in a little bit about the tree fellers. She has got to the part about the man with the yellow hard hat when the bell goes and it's time for them all to gather for morning assembly.

Throughout the morning Lily grows more and more nervous about presenting her project to the class and when it comes to eleven o'clock she feels a little bit sick, like she's eaten lots of ice cream, but also quite excited. Mr. Barnfather goes through the class alphabetically asking each student to present his or her project. Lily has to wait while Anders talks about his visit to the Apple juice factory, Daniela describes her holiday on a canal boat and Jake tells them about Great Dane dogs (which he always does when he has to make a presentation). Finally it is Lily's turn and she stands in front of her clean shiny classmates, all refreshed from their Easter holidays and hopefully eager to help.

Lily begins with a brief history of the horse chestnut tree, and especially of the game "Conkers which became popular from the tiny nutty fruits borne by the tree. She then describes the tree on Bottle Bank lane and explains why it is in danger. Finally she asks the class for help in trying to stop the tree fellers and tells them about the party for the tree that she and Granny Green thought of and watches their faces light up with excitement, because everyone loves a party, don't they? After she has made her presentation she sits down at the front of the class and holds her hands together very tight to stop them shaking. Mr. Barnfather gives her a kind smile and asks the class if they have any ideas.

"We could all write to the council and ask them to save the tree, pipes up Raj and Lily smiles at him gratefully. Mr. Barnfather agrees that this is a good idea.

"Or we could make a film and send it to the local television people, adds Sunita, whose Dad has a very sophisticated video camera. Lily feels a big rush of love for her friends. Soon the whole class is bobbing up and down with ideas, including Anders who suggests that they all tie themselves to the tree in protest, and Priscilla who suggests that they write a song for the tree and try to get it into the top 40. The rest of the period is taken up discussing ideas for saving the tree and before they know it they have missed five minutes of lunch and have to stand behind the older kids in the queue, but no-one minds because they are in such a fizzy of excitement about the tree party. But then Lily remembers something terrible at the back of her mind. The party is planned for Saturday yet Sophie said the tree fellers were coming on Tuesday.

That afternoon, after the rest of the class have made their presentations, Mr. Barnfather helps them all to write letters to the council, which he says he will deliver personally to the Mayor after school. Lily doesn't mention that the tree fellers may come tomorrow and all their efforts will be wasted, because she doesn't want to sound ungrateful for all their help and also because she really should trust Granny Green when she says that she will see to it that the tree is not destroyed on Tuesday.

After school Lily, Raj and Sunita hang around the school gates as long as they can, discussing plans for Saturday's party. Raj says that he will ask their mum to make some Indian snacks for the party and see if their dad will do the filming for the video.

Lily's mum gets very, very excited when Lily and Granny Green tell her about their plans for the party. She quickly slops some vegetable soup into four bowls for tea and sets about making lists and plans for all the things they can do. Lily's mum offers to make lots of cakes: vanilla and lemon and chocolate and banana, and says that she will make flags and vests for the whole class to wear over their tee-shirts to show their support. And when Lily tells her mum about Mr. Barnfather delivering the class's letters to the Mayor personally, Lily's mum smiles a funny little smile and mutters something about making a new dress for the occasion.

When Granny Green comes in to kiss Lily goodnight that evening Lily confesses that she is nervous about the tree fellers coming tomorrow. Granny Green envelopes her in a huge buttery hug and says very sternly, "Didn't I tell you we'd see about that? and then gives her a naughty wink.

The following day at school, the class is once again bubbling with excitement about the party and Mr. Barnfather has received a phone call from the council saying that they will look in to the matter of the tree on Bottle Bank Lane and will contact him shortly. This puts Lily's mind at rest about the tree fellers coming that afternoon but as she cycles across the green after school that afternoon she sees strange goings on near her house that make her wellies grow shivery cold.

Lily pedals so hard she could generate electricity and by the time she gets to Bottle Bank Lane she sees what she feared: a big lorry with "Council written on the side parked outside the Crump House. There are several men with yellow hats scuttling about like beetles beneath the tree and, horror of horrors, more men with ropes looped all over them dangling from the lower branches of the tree.

The dangling men look like nasty spiders as they slip slide back and forth on their web of ropes. Lily drops her bike on the grass and runs towards her front door, when she sees Granny Green sitting calmly on her deckchair in the front garden slurping a cup of tea. She sees Lily's panic stricken face and without saying a word nods again towards the tree.

Lily looks and looks but all she can see is the spidery men dangling, not going up, not going down, just staring at the middle branches. And there she spies Compo; like an old beanbag, squashed in to the heart of their favourite tree pretending to be stuck, and a big smile starts to itch her mouth.

Granny Green slowly uncurls herself from her chair and shuffles towards the gate. "I've called the fire brigade she says in a very old lady voice, which is not like her at all. "But they say they can't be here until after dark. There's an emergency over at Blue Bell farm. Lily can see that Granny Green has her knobbly old fingers crossed behind her back, which she always does when she tells fibs.

From his cradle of branches, Compo yawns and lets out a feeble "mook for special effect. Then, as good an actor as Granny Green, stretches unsteadily to his feet and pretends to wobble around a lot, before slumping back along his branch again.

The men in the tree know that they mustn't dare interfere with a stranded cat or an old lady, and begin to slide down their ropes and put their kit away in the council lorries. "Back next week then, they mumble as they start their engines and prepare to leave.

"We'll see about that, says Granny Green under her breath.

When they are safely out of sight, Lily gives Granny Green the biggest, strongest, most loving hug she can and scoops up Compo, who has hopped easily down from his treetop protest and is snaking around her legs blowing snotty bubbles of pride. Lily is so happy her heart feels like a fairground balloon and she and Granny Green skip around the garden to celebrate.

They still have a lot of work to do to prepare for the party on Saturday though, because this is their last chance to show everyone how important the tree is. And if they can get the big people, people like the mayor and the television and the local newspaper to see, then maybe they can stop the tree fellers coming back ever again.

After tea is washed up and put away, the whole family gets down to work on preparing for the party. Lily and Big Brother Bertie are painting a banner made from an old sheet to hang in the tree. Granny Green is piping tiny iced conkers on to a huge chocolate and chestnut cake and Lily's mum is making "Save our Tree vests for all the kids to wear over their tee-shirts. Tomorrow morning she has a meeting with Mr. Barnfather to write some letters to the local newspaper and other important people, so she has put some gunk on her face and some shiny stuff in her hair, and she is singing pretty songs as she works. Lily and Bertie look at each other and giggle quietly.

For the rest of the week Lily and Raj and Sunita and Priscilla and all the other kids in the class spend their spare moments preparing for the party (and their unspare moments talking about it, until Mr. Barnfather gets cross and tells them off). Snacks are prepared, posters are stuck on trees around the village, tables and chairs are borrowed from one house and stacked in another. Lily's mum's band practices in the church hall and everyone gets their best clothes ready.

Late on Friday night, once all the preparations are finally put to bed, and Lily has had her bath and washed her hair and cut her toenails (which as you know is very important for special occasions), she sits quietly at her bedroom window and looks at the tree. Although it is late April, the weather is cold and wet and the tree is drenched in grey drizzle, making its blossoms sag and fade and its leaves look sad and soggy and down-turned. It is a very sorry sight indeed. Lily hopes that the weather is better in the morning and that the tree will understand all the effort they have gone to and perhaps perk itself up a bit.

Lily wakes early and before she opens her eyes she listens carefully for the sound of rain on the roof but there is none. Shuffling sleepily to the window she peeps out over Bottle Bank Green and sees that the sky is the colour of fresh peaches and full of whippy little clouds like swirls of vanilla ice-cream. Fresh sunlight licks the grass around the tree and lights up blue and pink sprinkles of early forget-me-nots and bluebells gathered at the trunk.

The tree itself is washed and sparkling, its candles lit and leaves polished and waving. From Lily's room the early sun lights the bark of the tree trunk rosy red, as if it is embarrassed at having so much attention lavished on it, or perhaps just excited at the prospect of a party in its honour. Lily suddenly feels very very sure that her plan will work.

After several hours of preparing, fetching, carrying and hanging, at two o'clock they are ready for the party to begin. Lily's mum sets out tables and chairs while Granny Green and Sunita and Raj's mum pile the surfaces high with snacks, cakes, biscuits and other treats fit for kings and queens (or perhaps just the mayor and the man from the newspaper, both of whom said they would come). Big Brother Bertie and his friends climb the tree and hang the banner from the lower branches, whooping like monkeys and provoking worried looks from the grown ups.

Lily's mum has also made some bunting to hang around the tree, which is like a long rope of flags made out of different bits of material and looks very pretty. At the end she ran out of curtains and bedclothes to recycle and Lily spots that one of the flags is made from an old pair of Granny Greens pants, but she decides to keep this to herself, as the overall effect is very nice anyway.

Priscilla is the first to arrive, after Raj and Sunita who have been helping all morning. They all pull their "Save our Tree vests over their tee-shirts and smooth them out proudly. Although they are all a little bit different, each one has a picture of a chestnut tree on the front and a shiny brown conker on the back, with the words Save Our Tree sewn on in big letters. Lily's mum has worked very hard. Next to arrive are Anders and his dad and brothers and then a whole host of other people, including Mrs. Abugu in her ice-cream van, the band, Mrs. Woolly and Malcolm and a family of ducks from the millpond, who have come to see what all the fuss is about (and to steal some crumbs from the heaving cake table). Raj and Sunita's Dad runs between people and tables filming everything.

Last to arrive is Mr. Barnfather, who carefully accompanies the Mayor and the man from the newspaper with his photographer. He winks when he spots Lily's mum handing out yoghurt pots filled with homemade lemonade, which makes her spill half a cup on the grass and turns her cheeks the colour of raspberries.

Lily is delighted at how many people have come and that they all seem to be having fun, dancing to the music from the band and eating and drinking lots. However there is a little part of her that feels sad when she looks across the green and spies Sophie looking out from her bedroom window. Lily guesses that Mr. and Mrs. Crump have forbidden her from coming to the party and she knows that Sophie will be terribly sad because she loves a good party. Lily gives her a little wave and decides to sneak Sophie a huge piece of cake at the end of the day.

All afternoon the band tootles, adults dance and gossip, children play, dogs chase and the mayor is very polite to everybody. Lily eats four slices of cake and about twelve spicy exotic snacks from Raj's mum's table, washed down with many yoghurt pots of tangy lemonade. One of the older girls has brought some face paints with her and decorates Lily, Raj, Sunita, Priscilla and the others with the faces of field mice, bats and foxes.

Finally, as the sun shrinks to the size of an apricot and bobs beneath the trees, and the giant hissy tea urn borrowed from the village hall grumbles out its last cup of tea, the photographer gathers everyone around the tree for a group photograph for the local newspaper. Kids and grownups and dogs jostle for places and the photographer makes them laugh and hang on to each other so that they don't fall over. Then the photographer asks Lily to stand in the middle of the crowd, since the party was her idea, and hold a "Save our Tree flag, and Lily is kind of embarrassed but so proud that she feels warm and spicy in her wellies.

The Mayor has asked if he may say a few words to the crowd as they gather under the tree. He clears his throat in a funny little cough and adjusts his big mayor's necklace. "Ladies and Gentlemen, he begins. "I am delighted to have been invited to such a charming and unusual party today and I have thoroughly enjoyed myself. He goes on to thank Lily's mum and Mr. Barnfather, who are standing close together and who get the giggles at being mentioned by the mayor. He also thanks Granny Green, Raj and Sunita's mum and all the other organizers and the band members and particularly Lily, who is so happy she feels about six feet tall and her wellies nearly melt.

Once he has finished thanking everybody and the clapping has made everyone's hands numb, the mayor becomes very serious. "I think what today highlights is the importance of our community and the beauty of our area. I am proud that residents care so much about the local nature that they are willing to demonstrate in such a peaceful and powerful way. Lily isn't really sure what he means and she doesn't want to disturb her mum to ask, but she knows by the way the Mayor and Granny Green are smiling at her that it is a good thing and she smiles back.

"I had no idea, continues the Mayor, "that this tree was under threat, and I am personally issuing an emergency preservation order to ensure that it remains a part of our village for many many years to come. He looks directly at Lily and says, quietly, "No more tree fellers for this fellow.

Lily wants to hug him but she doesn't know what the rules are about hugging Mayors, so she walks up to him and shakes his hand in a very grown up fashion. Then she hugs Granny Green doubly hard to make up for it. The crowd cheers and shouts, the dogs bark and the band plays a loud tune with lots of drums and then eventually, after the Mayor has left, other people start to drift towards home.

Lily is so happy that the clearing up passes in a giant whorl of cheering, singing and people congratulating her on a good job. Once the final plate has been delivered to its correct home, litter picked up and the tables folded away, it is time for all the remaining helpers to go back to Lily's mum's for a little celebration. Mr. Barnfather has promised to treat them all to fish and chips.

When Lily finally gets to bed that night, above the noise of the band playing in the living room and Granny Green clattering plates in the sink, she looks out of her bedroom at the tree that she has saved and feels a very happy feeling inside.

The tree has puffed up its blossoms and shined its leaves and seems to be swaying in time to the music. Lily has never seen it look so beautiful. They have left the bunting in the tree overnight like a victory flag and, there at the top, like an elaborate decoration, sits Compo, next to a large and very cheery pair of Granny Green's pants.