Mary Kawena Pukui
1985
Laka stood among the great trees of the koa forest. "This is such a tree as my grandmother told me of," he thought. "It is straight and has grown strong fighting the mountain winds. Such a tree will make a strong canoe, one that can fight ocean waves." Then Laka prayed and went to work with his stone tool. All day he worked. At last the great tree fell, and Laka went home, tired but satisfied. "Tomorrow I shall trim off the branches," he thought. "I shall cut the log to the right length for a canoe. Then I must shape it, but I have no skill in shaping a canoe." When tomorrow came he could not find the log. "I should have marked the place," he thought. "Was it here or over there?" He wandered through the forest, but could not find the tree that he had cut. He cut down another and this time looked carefully to make sure of finding his log the next day. But the next day there was no log! It seemed to Laka that he found the tree. The place was right, and there stood a tree just like the one he'd cut the day before. He rubbed his eyes. Was someone raising the tree that he cut down? He would try once more. So once again he cut down a tree, marked the place carefully, and went home to sleep. The next day he returned at dawn. There stood the tree he had cut down! Someone had put it back in place, and not one mark of his stone tool was left upon its trunk. Laka stood looking, thinking, then returned to the village to talk with his grandmother.
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