The Ogre and the Gnome

Once upon a time in an evergreen forest, there lived an gre and a gnome who were the best of friends.  The ogre was a giant beast, green from head to toe.  You might think he was a grumpy sort of ogre, as many ogres are known to be curmudgeons, but that was not so.  This ogre was a gentle giant: strong, sturdy and slow about everything he did, except for climbing trees.  He could climb to the top of a Ponderosa Pine faster than you can say PON-DER-O-SA.

The gnome was a mischievous little fellow with a voice so sweet he could sing life back into fallen trees.  On any given day he could be found wandering the forest in search of berries. There has never lived a creature as fond of berries as the little gnome.

One fine fall day the little elf was celebrating a bountiful berry season.  There were blue berries, red berries, orange berries and white berries.  He went about picking the berries very carefully, only picking those he knew to be sweet and safe to eat.  He wandered upon a large patch of choke cherries and sat down to gather all he could.  He sang a little song as he picked.

Sweet, so sweet,

So sweet to eat.

Cherries in me bel-ly!

As he sang with his sweet, sweet voice, the berries grew sweeter and sweeter.  The gnome grew crazy with desire for cherries, cherries and more cherries.  He began picking and eating faster and faster and faster.  So fast that he no longer saw what he picked.  In his frenzy he mistakenly picked and ate a snow berry.

I bet you can guess the color of that snow berry.  It was white, white like snow.  Now if you know anything about berry picking, you probably know that white berries are to be avoided.  They are known to be poisonous!  Right after the gnome swallowed that berry, he froze.  His stomach began to ache, his head grew fuzzy, and after shouting one feeble cry for help, he fell to the forest floor.  Oh, the poor little gnome!

Not far from the choke cherry patch the ogre was perched atop a Ponderosa Pine watching the Abert’s squirrels scuttle about collecting and hiding seeds for the coming winter.  Now you might remember, the ogre is slow sort of fellow.  He didn’t really enjoy doing, but instead liked being, watching and listening.  As he was just being in the forest that day, he heard a little yelp, a noise that was out of the ordinary and quite different from the murmurs of the forest he had been happily listening to all day.  Needless to say, the noise caught his attention and with his keen eyesight he began to scan the forest floor.  Lucky for the little gnome, the ogre spotted him laid out underneath the choke cherry bushes, hands clenched over his stomach.

The ogre jumped from the top of the tree right to the ground and hustled, as fast as a giant ogre can hustle, right over to the choke cherry patch to attend to his friend.  He was quick to spot a bit of snow berry juice on the little gnome’s lips and he knew exactly what to do.  Faster than you can say PON-DER-O-SA the ogre climbed to the top of the nearest Ponderosa and began to jump from tree top to tree top.  You can probably imagine what a daring act this was.  A giant ogre jumping through the trees. With each jump the trees would bend so deep the tops would almost touch the ground, but the ogre would  hold on tight and as the tree top would swing back up he would leap to the next tree.  As he traveled over the forest he moved from the Ponderosa Pine forest to the high mountains where the Limber Pines live, and, there, he began to amble across the rocky land looking between boulders and below rocky cliffs  until he spotted the elusive, orange sun berry–a plant that  grew in almost total darkness but could take the tiniest ray of light  and turn it into the sweetest fruit.  He carefully plucked  one berry from the thorny branches and carried it carefully back, from tree top to tree top, to his little gnome friend

The ogre arrived just in time, just as the gnome was drifting off to a dreamy place that would be difficult to wake from.  The ogre placed the sun berry between the gnome’s lips and immediately the little gnome began to cough, the sun berry having melted the snow berry’s poison to water.  The gnome roused from his sleep with a sour belly and a full heart.  In his sweetest voice he sang to his ogre friend

I love you great big ogre

with your great big ogre ears.

You are my friend dear ogre

because of you I am here.

I la-la-la-la-la love you.

Please stay right here with me

And we will sit in the forest

Together we will be.