A St. Nikolas Story

"The Fiercest Little Animal in the Forest" is now available in book form through https://www.createspace.com/3408785 and Amazon.  Story by Terri Reinhart, Illustrated by Patrick Reinhart

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The fiercest animal in the forest was the pine marten. Every time another animal would come near to him, he would growl and snarl and snap at them. Then the animals would run away from him. If any people walked through the forest, he would hide in a bush and growl and snarl and snap at them as they went by. Then the people would walk a little faster to get away from the snarling and snapping beast.

One day, the pine marten heard people coming. There were a lot of people coming right through his forest! It was St. Nikolas and all his helpers. The pine marten hid in a bush close by the path. As the people came by, the he started to growl and snarl and snap his teeth. Some of the people closest to him began to walk faster. But one man stopped and looked down at the little pine marten. The pine marten suddenly was afraid and wanted to run away, but he found that he was caught in the brambles of the bush. St. Nikolas, for that is who had stopped to look at him, bent down and gently picked up the pine marten and put him in his pocket. The little fellow began to scrabble and scratch, but it was no use.

He was stuck in St. Nikolas’ pocket all through the journey across the forest and all the way to the sea. He stayed in St. Nikolas’ pocket when everyone boarded the ship and when they sailed all the way across the sea.

When they finally arrived at the other shore, St. Nikolas’ helpers carried bags of food: flour, apples, nuts, and honey cakes. They went together to a town where the people were very poor and hungry. St. Nikolas and his helpers left food on each doorstep. Then St. Nikolas took the little pine marten out of his pocket. St. Nikolas looked closely at the pine marten, “No more growling,” said St. Nikolas, “no more snarling and no more snapping. I have work for you to do.” And he sent the pine marten in each house with coins to drop into the stockings that were hanging by the fire. The little pine marten worked very hard, carrying the coins in his mouth and slipping into the houses. He worked all night long and when morning came and he was finished with his work, he was very tired. He was happy to go back inside St. Nikolas’ pocket!

The little pine marten was so sleepy that he didn’t even know when they got back on their ship and sailed across the sea for home. He didn’t wake up, even when they came to the forest. But when they came quite close to where St. Nikolas had found him, St. Nikolas took him out of his pocket and told him that he could go free.

But the little pine marten wanted to stay with St. Nikolas. And so, he went back into St. Nikolas’ pocket and continued on the journey to St. Nikolas’ home. From that time on, he lived in the woods close to St. Nikolas’ house. And whenever St. Nikolas needed his help, he was right there.

Terri Reinhart                 12/06

Update on Sunday, December 7, 2008 at 8:00AM by Terri Reinhart

When St. Nikolas visited our school last Friday, this is the story he told to the children.  I was most excited when the 11th grade student, who had the role of Ruprecht this year, told me how much she enjoyed the story.

To her, the story of the pine marten really was the story of Ruprecht. 

Who knows where these stories come from when we tell them to the children?  Can we really say that we are writing them ourselves?  After struggling with how to tell the story of St. Nikolas to the children one year, and taking this struggle into my meditation and sleep, I woke up to this image of the pine marten.  Perhaps I am just remembering my brother's pet rat who used to climb up onto his bed and sit on his chest and wake him up every morning, but that's how I pictured my encounter with the pine marten.  It was as if he was sitting on my chest, just waiting for me to wake up so HE could tell me the story.  I just wrote it down.

By the time our kindergarten teachers "found" this story on the internet, my name had disappeared from it altogether.  I came home and told my family that I am now old enough to have become folklore.  It's not a bad feeling, really!