Woodsy Excerpts
Leaflag and the Cuckoo
(From Ch1 Lazy Habits)
This aimless youngster liked long summer days.
He wandered up and down wood-
Looking for entertainment or somewhere to rest.
Once he decided to explore a bird’s nest.
(Woodsies have no wings. They just have to think
to be in another place. Some people who know
their haunts and have quick eyes may have seen
flashes of light and taken them for shiny wings.)
In the nest he chose there was a young cuckoo
among the other skinny hedge-
Cuckoos are lazy, too, using nests made by
smaller birds to lay an egg and have their young
fed for free along with other hungry mouths.
And this young cuckoo wasn’t pleased to see
his visitor: ‘Who asked you in here?’
Leaflag had laid his head on the soft down
of a sparrow chick and was stretching out
for a midday sleep. ‘It’s just a place full
of feathers and beaks. Why shouldn’t I use it?’
‘We don’t want an overgrown grasshopper,
or some wingless green fly,’ snapped the cuckoo.
‘I’m no such thing!’ Shouted Leaflag angrily.
‘Well, you’re not a bird. That’s for sure!’
‘Of course I’m not. I’m a well-
‘Never heard of them!’ The cuckoo sounded bored.
‘No wonder!’ was the answer. ‘ You lot
are just visitors and don’t belong here.
I can roam where I please and use nests
to suit me the way your tribe does.
I’ll go when I hear our bluebells ring
to summon us home for the evening feast.’
But before he knew it he found himself
crashing into a heap of bracken and looking up
at the cuckoo’s ugly head and yellow beak
poked over the rim of the nest. ‘Alright?
No harm done, eh!’ chuckled the bird.
‘Next nest you fancy, ask if you’re wanted.’
Leaflag and the Dolls’ Maid
( From Ch 3. A Little House & Slices of Bread)
Once the cleaner had left he shot across the room
and tried to open the door of the small house.
It was tightly shut. Now there are spells
to unstick stubborn objects, but Leaflag
had not listened to lessons about such matters.
The door was fitted with a tiny brass knocker,
and he’d seen and heard people knock on doors,
but try as he would he could not lift it.
(I’m afraid it was a glued-
That made him lose his temper, and thump and kick
with all his might till quite suddenly he tumbled
head first into the front hall. He got up
to find a lady about his size staring at him.
She wore a long, black dress and apron, and held
a loaded tray. She looked astonished and offended.
Remembering the cuckoo he tried to be polite.
‘Greetings, lady! I’ve called specially to visit you.’
The maid servant did not move. She stared and stared
with two unmoving, pale-
‘I’m here to see you!’ Leaflag spoke less gently.
But still she just gazed ahead as if a spell
had turned her to wood and stuck her to the polished floor.
Leaflag began to shout. ‘No need to keep staring!
Can’t you talk? I’m hungry. What’s on that tray?’
Head-
(From Ch 5. Secret Meals and Games that go wrong)
(John) laid out the train, tested it at full speed,
then invited Leaflag to alight on a truck.
The Woodsy was only too glad to emerge
from his uncomfortable hiding place.
And maybe he thought he should try for once
to please his friends. So he soared down
and clung to the front end of a coal truck
only to be jerked forward at terrifying speed,
then round and round the circuit past the same
grinning children whose faces became more and more
blurred. If only he had been more attentive
in his lessons, he could have shut down the power
or flown off the truck as it hurtled him along.
He felt dizzy and sick, while John who would have loved
to ride on his models thought it must be great fun.
( While this was going and the train happened to be
inside the tunnel, Jessie looked in and was glad
to see that her charges were playing contentedly.)
When John turned the power down and brought the train
to a gentle halt, he was surprised that Leaflag
stamped his foot, scowled with anger and shook his fist:
‘How dare you treat me like this! You’d better
look out or else I’ll pay you back with something worse.’
‘What’s got into you?’ snapped John. ‘NO
pleasing you, is there? We thought you’d like
a short trip on rails. My trains run smoothly.’
‘Like it?!’ screamed the Woodsy. ‘I’ve never
been so frightened and uncomfortable. At least
your horrible doll’s house doesn’t spin
round and round like a dried up leaf in a gale.’
Lisa tried to calm them down. ‘We always like
travelling at speed on trains, so we just thought
you would like try it.’ John then suggested
he might enjoy a short voyage on his yacht.
‘Maybe just up and down the bath. It’s far
too cold to go out and try the garden pond.’
‘ I won’t go on anything. I can travel
at speed whenever I like. And you’d better stop
using me like a plaything or else
I’ll take off and vanish altogether.’
Intruding Mouse
(From Ch. 8. Prisoner and Bully)
She had gnawed her way through the thin wood
and started to pick up crumbs and scraps strewn across
the floor. ‘Hey YOU! What are you up to?
You’ve no business to be in my house?’
The mouse was shocked and began to scamper off
when she took a closer look at Leaflag.
Mice get on well with woodsies, work for them,
receiving protection in return. She supposed
this was an important wood-
or he would not be hiding here in winter.
‘Your worship!’ exclaimed the mouse, bowing her head.
‘I’m just trying to feed my hungry brood.’
‘Aha! Interesting! And whereabouts do you
live with your children.’ ‘Behind the skirting board
in the big room outside this boxy place.
We call our nest Number One, Winter Terrace.
We means me and my little ones. My husband
was trapped and killed the very day we moved in.’
Ignoring that, Leaflag talked about what mattered
to him. ‘So what on earth do you find to feed on?’
It won’t surprise you that he was not concerned
for the welfare of the mouse and her family
but was hatching plans for his own advantage.
‘Oh we manage on whatever we can get
once the great house turns ghostly quiet at night.
Bits of cheese, pastry and bread if I squeeze
under the store room door. Often I bite
my way through covers into food they don’t put
into the terrible white freezing cupboard. My cousin
once got caught in one of those and froze to death.’
‘Most of that sounds good,’ said Leaflag.
‘I’ll move in with you and you’ll work for me.’
(He was careful not to say he could easily
leave the doll’s house thanks to her mousy
carpentry. She might not respect him
quite as much as she seemed to do now.)
Frosty Woodside
(From Ch 10. Winter Refuge
& Beginning Again)
John and Lisa never again saw or spoke to
their annoying guest, though one bright morning
Lisa rushed into the day room for a book
and thought she saw a greeny-
vanish from a shelf in the open toy cupboard.
Out of curiosity she lifted down the boxes
that contained all the broken train-
He’d kept them, though his dad had replaced
many items, and repaired the ruined track board.
Strangely, the boxes did not rattle, and inside
everything looked as good and sparkling as new,
neatly placed, too, in all its proper compartments.
Later, as well, Lisa found that her doll’s house
furniture was mended, and there was no sign
of John’s tack marks or the mouse’s gnawed entrance .
The children were sure Leaflag had become
a wiser woodsy, and had learnt how to undo
mischievous damage. They were also convinced
that there were no more winter mice to deal with
because a home had been found for them all
on the wood’s edge, with supplies to outlast
the cold season. Leaflag’s good work as well!
Of course, they say nothing to their friends
or to grown-
or mocked for having weird ideas. Their mum
would do neither, but always said she did not
believe in what you could not see, touch or hear.
Still, no one explained why the ruined train-
and doll’s house were now in perfect condition.
We’d like to think that Leaflag has become a hard-
and increasingly wise woodsy, who might even
venture out on still, freezing winter nights
to weave swirling frost patterns that remind us
of all the wonderful leaf and plant shapes
we will enjoy when spring returns.
Maybe the most finely-
you happen to notice on windows or puddles
are designed and worked at by one woodsy,
once the laziest of his tribe, now happy
to be seen as the busiest and most skilful.
