Chapter 1 – In a Flash

Elsie tried to stay very still inside the hollow tree where she was hiding. She could feel bugs crawling on her, but didn’t dare to move.

 

“Elsie! Where are you?” Burton called out in frustration.

 

Elsie couldn’t see him, yet she knew he was only feet away from her hiding place. She tried to still her heart that seemed to be beating loudly. Finally, she heard him stomp away. She slowly let her breath out. After several minutes, she wiggled carefully out of the tree. Elsie looked around at the tall trees that surrounded her and tried to think.

 

Overcome with emotion, she pulled an old rag from her apron pocket and blew her nose. Mother was dead. She had tried to tell Burton that her mother was sick and he hadn’t cared. He had yelled at her because his crumbling cabin was dirty and dinner was burnt.

 

Mother was supposed to clean, cook, wash, and tend the garden in exchange for a place for the two of them to sleep and food. She had been sick for days and Elsie had done the best she could, but it wasn’t good enough for Burton. Last night, when dinner was burnt, he had lifted Mother from where she lay on the floor and dumped her onto the porch. He had beaten Elsie with his belt and shoved her out the door. Elsie had tried to keep her mother warm in the cool night air, but mother didn’t move this morning. Elsie had run away into the woods and Burton was looking for her.

 

She didn’t have anywhere to go, but sensed she mustn’t stay with Burton. He was cruel and Mother wouldn’t be there to protect her. She had to find somewhere to stay and food to eat. Autumn was coming and winter after that. The village was poor and no one would want an extra mouth to feed.

 

Elsie looked around trying to decide which direction to walk. Burton would probably be watching the road as he tried to rid himself of Mother’s body. She hoped he would bury it and not throw it into a ravine. She was too small to move it. Looking deeper into the woods, she could see an area where the sunlight seemed to have broken through, maybe it was a sign that she should go that way. Elsie took a deep breath and walked.

 

The patch of sunlight was further than she would have guessed. When she finally got there, she was in a good sized orchard where neglected fruit trees grew. The trees were old and oddly shaped. She found apples on the first one she reached and picked one. It was misshapen and wormy, but she quickly ate it and reached for another. Rotting fruit littered the ground and bees

buzzed around. Some of the trees were bare and she wondered what type of fruit they had possessed. On the side furthest from where she had entered, she found a pear tree and an apple tree that were beautifully shaped and the fruit was just beginning to ripen.

 

She ducked behind the trunk of the pear tree and looked around. Someone had been taking care of these two trees and might be watching her. Elsie felt small and vulnerable.

 

“I haven’t done anything wrong,” she said aloud. “I just took fruit from the neglected trees. I don’t even know who owns the orchard. I was just walking in the woods.”

 

“No one said you did anything wrong,” came a voice from up in the tree.

 

Elsie screamed and ran away from the tree.

 

“Come back,” called the voice. “I won’t hurt you.”

 

Elsie stopped and looked back at the tree. “Are you a talking tree?” She asked in bewilderment.

 

The laugh that followed sounded quite merry. “Of course not, I’m a gnome,” said the little man as he descended the tree on a rope ladder that he had dropped down from one of the branches.

 

Elsie stood staring at the man who was barely two foot tall. He was dressed in brown trousers, and a checkered shirt. His brown hair was streaked with gray, and his beard flowed several inches down his chest.

 

“You’re a what?” Elsie questioned as she continued to study him.

 

“A gnome.”

 

“Like a leprechaun?” asked Elsie.

 

The little man looked perturbed. “Nothing like a leprechaun, or an elf, or a dwarf, a gnome is a gnome.”

 

“But all those things are make-believe, aren’t they?”

 

“Child, I am real. I’ve never seen the others, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist simply because I have had no contact with them. A hippopotamus is real though I’ve never seen one.”

 

Elsie gulped; obviously she had annoyed the man. “I’m terribly sorry. Please excuse my manners.”

 

The gnome nodded. “What are you doing out here all alone? You do know there are dangers in the forest, don’t you?”

 

“Yes, Sir, I’m running away from someone more dangerous than the forest.”

 

“Well, we will discuss that shortly. My name is Theodore Gnome the Fourth, Esquire. For the record, I do not live underground, nor do I guard a buried treasure.”

 

Elsie smiled and curtsied like Mother had taught her. “I am Elsie Rose Bainbridge.”

 

“Bainbridge?” Questioned Theodore. “Your father was a Bainbridge?”

 

Elsie blushed scarlet. “No, Sir. My mother and grandmother were Bainbridge. My mother never spoke of my father, and my grandmother died before I was born.”

 

“How old are you?”

 

“Nine winters, Mother liked to say. I’ll be ten in the spring.” Elsie answered looking very sad.

 

“Where is your mother, is that who you are running away from?”

 

“No, never, my mother tried very hard, and was always kind to me. She died during the night. I’m running from her master.”

 

“Master? Do you mean her employer?”

 

Elsie shook her head no. “He insisted mother call him ‘Master’. His name is Burton and he would beat Mother and me when he was angry. I won’t go back there; you mustn’t try to make me.”

 

Theodore looked at the frightened child and knew he would do all in his power to protect her. After all these years, his job was finally starting. He couldn’t explain it to Elsie for she was much too young to understand. He had tried many years ago to help her mother, but she had refused his advice. Hopefully Elsie would be different. He took Elsie’s hand and led her toward a little shed. “Sit here on the bench and I’ll get you some water,” he offered.

 

Elsie sat on the little bench and soon found herself crying. Theodore heard her and waited several minutes before returning.

 

The water was very cold and Elsie began to feel better after drinking it. “Theodore, what am I to do? I’ve nowhere to go. No one will hire me to cook or clean house for them at my age.”

 

“What you are to do, is to stay here in the forest. I will help you and I can teach you many things before you go off on your own. We’ll fix this little shed up so you’ll be warm and dry this winter.”

 

Elsie looked around, “But where will you stay?”

 

Theodore laughed, “Where I’ve stayed these many years, in the tree over there.”

 

Elsie looked at the enormous tree with the doorway cut into it.

 

“It’s mostly hollow, and very comfortable and roomy for me. I’m sorry I can’t invite you in, but you are too large to fit.”

 

“I’m sure it’s splendid. Do you have a fireplace in there?” Elsie asked.

 

“No, it wouldn’t be good to have a fire inside a tree. I make a fire over there close by to cook on. Enough about that, let’s see what you are going to need Miss Elsie Rose. Do you have some things hidden somewhere in the forest?”

 

Elsie sadly shook her head no. “I am all I have.”

 

“No other clothes or books or a blanket?”

 

“I only got different clothes when my outfit no longer fit, I don’t know how to read, and Mother and I shared a blanket.”

 

“We must start remedying things one at a time. You’ve never been to school?”

 

“No, Sir.”

 

Theodore pulled at his beard, trying to decide what needed to be done in what order. “Well, to start with, I need to walk to town, not the village, do you know where that is?”

 

Elsie looked puzzled and Theodore understood that to mean she had never been beyond the village.

 

“I see. You should stay here this time. I will be gone overnight and get back before tomorrow night. You’ll be safe sleeping in the shed. I’ll leave some bread for you and show you how to draw water from the well. Tomorrow, you must walk around the neglected trees and pick the nicest fruit from them and put it in the baskets you’ll find in the shed. After that, start gathering sticks and fallen limbs for firewood. Don’t go into the woods any further than the edge.”

 

Elsie nodded her head though she felt frightened at the prospect of being alone.

 

Twenty minutes later, Theodore appeared with a small traveling bag and took a two-wheeled handcart from beside the shed. He hadn’t gone more than a few feet when Elsie called out to him, “What if you don’t come back?”

 

“I will,” Theodore responded without turning around. There was no way that he would explain to Elsie that children often threw things at him and taunted him when they saw him. His lack of stature seemed to give them the right to bully him. He had to return safely, Elsie needed him.