The Treehouse With No Ladder
It starts with a little idea…
Elsie (child)“There’s a bear who builds a treehouse, and he’s got all these plans. But he forgets how to get in. I was going to say a ladder, but that’s too easy. Maybe his friend can’t climb. Could they go up in something?”
Bear has planned every corner of his new treehouse. There is a table, a window and a splendid view. There is just one thing he has forgotten.
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A splendid plan
Bear had filled three notebooks with plans for his treehouse. He had drawn a window for watching rain, a shelf for interesting stones and a table exactly big enough for two teacups. He built it in the old mountain pine, where the branches spread like open arms. Then he climbed down, put away his tools and invited Hedgehog to tea.
The missing part
Hedgehog arrived carrying a small jar of blackberry jam. “What a lovely house,” she said. “How do we get in?” Bear looked at the door. It was a long way above his head. He looked at his notebooks. Window. Shelf. Table. He had forgotten the way up. “Oh,” he said. It was a very small word for a very large problem.
Not a ladder
“I’ll make a ladder,” Bear said quickly. Hedgehog set down the jam. “My legs are rather short for ladders.” “Then I’ll make a very good ladder.” “A very good ladder is still a ladder,” she said. Bear shut his notebook. He had built a house for two, but he had only thought about one. “All right,” he said. “We need a different plan.”
The lunch basket
A little basket hung from the treehouse branch. Bear had used it to pull up his sandwiches while he worked. Hedgehog nudged it with her nose. “If lunch can go up,” she said, “could we?” Bear looked from the basket to his friend. “Not in that one. But perhaps in something bigger.” He opened a fresh page. This time, Hedgehog stood beside him.
Something bigger
Together they planned a little wooden lift: a box with a seat, a gate and a rope running over a wheel. At the bottom, Bear fitted a handle to wind the rope. He built another handle beside the treehouse door. “Before either of us rides,” he said, “we try it empty.” Hedgehog turned the lower handle. The lift rose. Then it stopped.
The wrong sort of help
Bear took the handle and pushed harder. The rope creaked. The lift did not move. “Wait,” said Hedgehog. “More pulling isn’t a new idea.” They stepped back and looked up. A crooked branch had caught the corner of the box. Bear lowered it again. His first plan had gone straight up the tree. The tree, unfortunately, had not grown straight.
A little to the left
Bear moved the rope-wheel to a clear branch farther out. Now the lift had its own space beside the trunk. They sent it up empty. They sent it up with a sack of stones. They brought it down again. Up. Down. Up. Down. Every time, it stopped beside the little landing. Hedgehog listened. “No creaking,” she said. “I like this plan better.”
The first passenger
Hedgehog sat in the lift with the jam on her lap. She closed the gate. Bear turned the handle slowly. The ground slipped away. Hedgehog passed a knot in the trunk, then a nest of sleepy pine needles. At the landing, Bear stopped winding. “Well?” he called. Hedgehog opened the treehouse door. “The table is perfect,” she called back. “But there’s only one of us at it!”
One more turn
Hedgehog tried the upper handle. The empty lift came gently down to Bear. He put his notebooks on the seat and climbed in beside them. Now it was Hedgehog’s turn to wind. Bear rose past the branch that had stopped their first attempt. From up here, the problem looked very small. At the landing, his friend was waiting with the door wide open.
A place for two
They spread blackberry jam on warm bread and watched the valley through the window. Bear opened his notebook at the splendid first drawing. Underneath it, he wrote: A house needs more than a door. It needs a way in for the people you invite. “Shall we keep the lift?” Hedgehog asked. “Certainly,” said Bear. “And the little basket?” Bear smiled. “That,” he said, “is for extra sandwiches.”
An illustrated example of the experience we are developing. Talebrix is still in development; this book was not printed by the device.