CHAPTER ONE

"Aaahhh!" escaped from the lips of Bain Spee as he lowered his body into the furry seat of his favorite chair. He propped his feet up on the matching foot rest, stretched his arms over his head and closed his eyes. Just then he felt a gentle plop as a warm, redbody settled itself in his lap. Bain ran his hand over the soft fur of his companion, Fergus, the red fox. Not to be outdone, Sharp, a brown squirrel possessed Bain’s feet.

His chair was sitting on a large patterned rug that he designed, spun and wove with his own hands.

Bain looked at his living room. It was round and a warm deep red. For, you see, he made a very big tree in the middle of a very big impregnable forest into his beautiful home.

Lamps were hanging from the polished wood walls and two hanging from the center of the ceiling. There were different rooms that sprung off of this one, a kitchen, a bedroom-library, and an office-workroom.

Bain Spee, himself, was dressed from head to toe in a green-colored suit, made of very fine wool. He took off his green hat when he came through the oval door and hung it on the coat rack he made which stuck into the wall.

His paintings, made of scenery seen around his home and one painting he made of his beloved mother, who was no longer living, were hung on the walls. You could see their resemblance. The picture showed a middle aged beautiful woman with raven black hair, brown eyes and very fair skin. Bain’s hair and eyes were the same, only his fair aristocratic skin was browned now from many years of living in the woods.

Coming into the room you stepped down two steps. The floor was made of wood from fallen trees, cut, planed and polished to a high shine with pine resin. Beside the door, on each side, were two oval windows.

Near the left window Bain hollowed out a five-foot niche on which to place books and nick knacks he made or found. There was a bird’s nest, a colorful spinning top, a carving of a man’s face from a tree knot that he just finished.

Spiral stairs circled the inside of the trunk. It was built of ironwood and fastened sturdily into the inside of the trunk. A carved safety-railing was set into the wall and led to the "Crow’s Nest" or lookout branches way up near the top of the tree. There he could watch the sun going down, survey the surrounding forest for anything of interest or watch for fires and intruders.

Bain made a fire in the ceramic fireplace and the room began to feel warm and cozy. A fireplace in a live tree you ask? Oh, yes. Bain is a very cautious man. He built a fireplace and a hearth out of clay which he fired in a kiln that he formed out of the earth. He fashioned a small hole through the side of the wall and inserted the clay pipe through it . He made and installed one in his kitchen, and the other rooms, also.

To the left of the fireplace was an ornately carved hand-made box made to hold the fire wood. Bain’s padded lounge chair was placed in front of the fireplace. Another similar chair was placed at an angle to the left.

At the back of this main room was an oval opening leading to the kitchen which was built onto the tree trunk. A back door in the kitchen led outside. Attached to the right of the kitchen were two rooms that lead into each other. These were the bedroom-library and the work room.

All this was built to scale for a man who never grew taller than four feet.

With contentment, Bain wiggled his toes in his warm fur slippers. Feeling this Sharp woke up, and turned his beady eyes upward fixing his eyes on Bain to see if he was going to get a snack.

Fergus felt himself slipping off of Bain’s lap and squinched himself around for a more comfortable position. To Fergus’ surprise he began to loose hold of his comfortable perch as Bain started to get up, saying,

"Come on you two, let’s go into the kitchen, Willard’s coming to dinner you know, or do you remember?"

Fergus jumped off Bain’s lap and the two odd friends scampered off to the kitchen, for they learned to associate "dinner" with the kitchen. They scampering fast to see who could get there first. The first one to arrive would get the "Special Place of Observance" on a small table Bain built just for them to sit on. It was in the corner near the back door, right near the water tub. They dashed to it and Fergus being the biggest and fastest as usual, jumped to the front of the table first and planted himself there while Sharp made do with sitting in the back. Sharp chattered and waved his tail furiously over this great indignity. But soon the two settled down on their perch to watch the proceedings. As he settled himself, Fergus’ tail draped completely over Sharp and so the little one burrowed through until his head stuck out and he laid there contentedly, chin on Fergus, his beady eyes following every move Bain made.

Putting on an apron, Bain began to prepare a succulent salad made of the youngest, tenderest, sweetest greens he gathered that morning when the dew was still on them. He soaked them in water to keep them fresh. Honey and homemade vinegar was the dressing, with special herbs from his own garden.

The main course was fresh-caught rabbit, mushrooms, nuts, and vegetables baked in a ceramic pan of his own creation.

After he chopped everything, he made the dressing, the sauce for the main dish and after putting it onto the oven to cook, he started on the desert.

Tonight he would serve the honey-raisin bread he baked just that morning. Willard was bringing the cream Bain would whip and sweeten with honey to pour over the bread.

While he was preparing all of this he was careful to cut little bits of food and toss them to his friends on the "Special Place." Fergus would daintily take a morsel in his tiny black paws and nibble at it turning it slowly to get his long snout around it until it was gone. Sharp, grabbing his morsel, popped it into his mouth and devoured it in one bite. No hesitating for him.

This difference in eating habits always made Bain chuckle. The antics of these two companions of his were always good for a laugh.

Bain set the table in the center of the room with his yellow hand-loomed table cloth and napkins, and yellow circled ceramic dishes of his own design.

Suddenly, there was the big "boom, boom, boom" from the ironwood doorknocker on the front door. That sound announced the arrival of Willard. Just in time, the dinner was ready.

Both critters jumped off of the table and scampered like lightening into the livingroom and planted themselves in front of the door. They turned their heads back to Bain as if to say, "Hurry up, don’t keep your friend waiting!"

Waiting on the other side of the door was a very large man, a good 5'11 . When Bain opened the door, Willard stooped to enter the room. He was large-boned. He was just a little younger than Bain’s 59 years but was as sprightly as a 30-year old. They were friends, now, for thirty years and were close like brothers.

Giving him a bear-hug Bain said: "Well, it’s about time you got here, the dinner is about burned and the little ones have about eaten it up."

"Well, then I’ll just go on back home if that’s the way you call it." This, Willard said with a big grin while leaning over his slim four foot friend to clap him hard on the back. They used to really mean these words years ago when they both were bitter men. Now, because they met the "Master" their attitudes completely changed and life was a joy to them and their close friendship even more rewarding.

"Well, friend, let me have your coat. It’s a cold day out there, isn’t it? Did you see anything interesting on your way here?"

Bain took Willard’s coat hung it on the rack, gathered fur slippers, especially made for him, from the shoe rack by the door and placed them in front of his chair. Willard sat down and tugged his boots off, gladly slipping into them stretching his feet toward the fire. The slippers felt so comfortable, because his feet were very cold. He placed his Bible on a table beside him.

Here is an odd friendship if you ever saw one–tall and brawny and small and slim. Yes, you guessed it, there is a story here.

Let me take you back to the beginning——