The Wild Service Tree

Once upon a time there was a garden where no bird dared to twitter, no flower dared to bloom and no child dared to play.
Infact not even the sun liked to shine upon the garden because you see it was the garden of a very wicked witch.
And the only thing that did grow in the garden was a Wild Service Tree; a very sad tree because the witch only kept it as a way of tempting little children to come into her garden so that she could catch them.
And there were two little boys named James and John who would often climb the tree to eat its sweet fruits that people call checkers
Every day the tree, because it was magic would warn them, "Don't let the witch catch you in her tree or she'll cook you for supper".
But James and John were sure that the witch would never catch them.
One day however, the witch came out while they were in the tree.
"You don't have to scramble in a tree for fruit like monkeys", she said to them, "Come down and I'll bake you a nice fruit pie".
But the boys wouldn't come down.
"We're not coming down there where you can catch us and cook us for supper", they said.
So then the witch, because she was very strong, started to shake the tree.
"If you won't come down then I'll shake you down", she said to them.
But the boys held on tightly to the branches of the tree and, though it was difficult, even though the witch shook the tree very hard, so hard in fact that all the fruit fell out of the tree, the two boys did not fall out.
"Come down here this instant", said the Witch, getting angry.
But the boys still refused to come down.
And so the witch went into her house and got her axe.
"Very well", she said to James and John, "If you won't come down then I'll chop down this tree with both of you still in it".
And, saying, that she began to swing her axe and chop at the tree.
But as she did the magic tree began to scream.
"Quiet", said the witch to the tree, "Do you want the whole forest to hear".
But the tree wouldn't stop screaming and the witch couldn't keep it quiet even though she took off her shawl and tried to muffle the sound.
And people from all round about, hearing the scream and thinking that someone was being murdered, came running and when the boys saw the people they called out, "Help us! Help us! The witch is trying to cut down her tree with us still in it".
Ofcourse, the witch tried to deny it but everyone who had come running saw the axe and the cuts that the witch had made to the tree and every cut in the tree spoke like a mouth accusing the witch so then she was taken away to be arrested.
After that, children from all round about played in the witches garden; flowers bloomed all over it, birds flocked there to sing and the sun shone upon it with happiness which made the magic tree very happy indeed.