Once upon a
time, long long ago, in the deep, dark forests of Finland, woodworms lived in peace and
happiness. Busily they bored their holes and tunnels in the trees, and the trees were
pleased by the fresh air within their wood.
There were a great many animals in the forest, but none of them wanted to harm the
woodworms. All animals were friends of these tiny creatures, especially squirrels. Their
friendship was so good, the squirrels sometimes even played Taxi for the woodworms.
How, you ask ?
Now, squirrels are fast and can jump easily from tree to tree.
If a woodworm wanted to visit his girlfriend, who lived in the third tree to the right, he
would simply ask a squirrel to give him a ride.
The little woodworm would bore his way into a piece of pinecone, the squirrel would take
the piece of pinecone gently with his teeth, and...
.... wheeee ! away they went !
And before the woodworm could say...
"where-woodworms-in-the-forests-drill,
have-woodpeckers-no-spare-time-to-fill"
...he would be at the third tree to the right !
If a woodworm wanted to make a really long trip, maybe to the "big lake with the
island", then the squirrels would set up a relay team. That means, they would switch
up - every fifteen trees a new squirrel would take over being the Taxi.
One day, a flock of strange birds entered the forest, a kind of bird no-one had ever seen
before. The birds had long, pointy, dangerous-looking beaks and red crests on their heads.
They were called "the woodpeckers".
Unfortunately the woodpeckers had a habit that was troublesome for the woodworms; namely,
they liked living in trees, too. They chopped into the wood with their long beaks until
chips were flying everywhere! They made huge holes in the trees, chopped out a deep cave
and lived there inside it.
In the process, they could easily destroy the tunnels and homes of the woodwurms... and if
there was still a woodworm inside, he was immediately eaten! In the being this was only
accidental, but started happening more often when the woodpeckers realized how much easier
it was than catching ants or flies.
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Now there were
becoming fewer and fewer woodworms and more and more ants, and woodpeckers were becoming
ruder and ruder!
Things couldn't continue like that !
In this state of emergency, the woodworm councillor decided that help must be found. But
who could help? Woodworms were brought by squirrel-relay from all over the forest. At last
came a lady woodworm who knew "the Great Worm of Eckeroo".
Three squirrel-relays were organized, and wheee! away they went !
Well, the Great Worm didn't have to be asked twice!! Now, he wouldn't fit into a pinecone,
or even onto a squirrel's back - after all, he was no ordinary little woodworm, he was
"the Great Worm of Eckeroo" !
He had a deer-taxi, though, that was also very fast. Three days later, they were all back
in the forest with the rude woodpeckers.
The next day, another woodpecker arrived to chop a home out of a tree with his pointed
beak. The great Worm creapt silently up to the tree, chomped his big sharp teeth into the
wood and... suddenly down came the tree, woodpecker and all!
Because the Worm hid himself in the leaves, the shocked woodpecker had no idea who had
played a trick on him. He could only see that someone had gnawed on the tree.
It wasn't any better for the other woodpeckers. Just as they would begin to hammer into a
tree, boom! ... they were lying in the grass!
Eventually they discovered the Great Worm, and this led to a conference between the
woodpeckers and the woodworms.
The woodpeckers promised that they would only chop out homes in trees where no
woodworms lived, and to stop eating the woodworms - except maybe by mistake. They would
tell all the other woodpeckers about this agreement, too. And so they did.
Since that time, woodpeckers knock first before building their homes, and if you ever go
through a forest, maybe you'll be lucky and hear that knocking.
© Peter Dörling, 2000 Grafik: Maren Winter |