Mary & The Tree

A short story about the environment.

One thing that many parents do not teach their children about is the importance of caring for the environment. I’ll tell you a story about Mary. She was a girl with golden curls and red ribbons in her hair. She liked to play in parks. Every day, Mary’s mother took her to the park that was in her neighbourhood and there the girl played with other children. Sometimes they played with a ball; sometimes they played hide and seek, and other times they played hopscotch. Mary and her friends really knew how to have fun in the park.

Mary, like many people, liked chocolates a lot. In fact, she liked chocolates more than anything else. Even when her mother served her delicious fruits for breakfast, such as bananas, apples, or strawberries, the girl would say: “Mom, I want to eat only chocolates.” But her mother, knowing that a child needs to eat fruits and vegetables, would say to her: “You can eat chocolate, but first you must be good and eat your breakfast. Remember that candies and chocolates cannot be eaten all the time!” Mary would then obey her mother and eat the fruits.

As you can see, Mary was a very respectful child to her mother and her mother loved her very much. But Mary’s mother did not know it was important to take care of the environment, which is why she never taught Mary to do it. Because of this, Mary sometimes left chocolate wrappers lying on the floor in the park—right on the lawn near the trees, instead of putting them into the trash.

One day Mary woke up feeling very good. The sun shone on high and there were no clouds. That day was a Saturday, so she would not have to go to school! That meant she could play in the park until nighttime without any interruptions. She got up, ate the healthy breakfast that her mother had prepared for her, got dressed, then waited for her mother to be ready. Then they walked to the neighbourhood park, which looked much greener and brighter than usual. Mary did not waste the day; she played with the other children until she was very tired—and then played a little more. Oh, how much fun she had that day. Late in the afternoon, the girl remembered that her mother gave her a chocolate every day if she was a good girl, and that day she had been good. So she went to her mother who was speaking with other moms. Her mother gave her the candy and the girl devoured it with great pleasure and then, without thinking about it, she threw the wrapper between the roots of a tree.

“Hey!” someone shouted at her, “Why did you do that?” Mary turned around and realized that it was the tree that spoke to her.

“Do what, Sir?” asked the girl innocently.

“Throw a wrapper between my roots. It is not fair, I am good to you and I give you shelter and shade when it is hot. When fruits grow on my branches, you eat them. So, why do you throw garbage on me?” The tree was truly sad about the whole thing.

“I did not know it was bad to do it,” said the girl. “Yes. We plants do not like garbage. Older people know this, that is why there are rubbish bins around the park to throw the trash into. This is so that garbage does not harm us, because garbage is very harmful to plants!”

“I did not know that, Mr Tree. Please excuse me, I promise I will not do it again,” apologized Mary. The tree was very grateful to the girl for agreeing not to litter again, so he dropped an apple for her to eat. Mary picked it up and took a bite. She had never tasted such a sweet fruit in her life. From that day, she always placed the trash in its proper place. Everyone should always be careful when taking care of the environment and not do anything to hurt plants and animals. Garbage must be thrown into rubbish bins and not carelessly left around in beautiful places like parks!