Moss Playhouses

In Cleared for Planting, when their father gets mean after a drinking binge, Emma takes her younger sister, Christie, into the forest around their cabin to get away from him. Emma spends the day on activities she knows Christie will enjoy.

            Emma set out to entertain Christie. She found a mossy area, and they built a little playhouse interior using the moss and sticks. They made chairs, beds, and tables. They found twigs and broke them to look like stick figures, dressed them in a leaf, and played for a long time. Emma felt too old to be playing like this, but it provided a good diversion, and Christie certainly enjoyed it.

            “Can we come back here and play with the moss house again sometime?” Christie asked.

            “Sure, we can.”

            They found a sunny spot and sat on huge rocks. Emma told stories of kings, queens, princes, princesses, and knights who fought dragons, saved kingdoms, married the one of their dreams, and lived happily ever after.

closeup of moss

            “Is that what’s going to happen to Francie?” Christie asked.

            “Of course it is,” Emma answered, because that’s what Christie wanted to hear, and they both knew this was a day for make-believe.

            They found a persimmon tree and scared an ugly possum away. They ate persimmons from the ground for dinner. They were sweet and juicy from the early frost.

            Emma taught Christie to skip rocks across the widest part of the stream. She showed her how to hold a blade of grass taut against the base of her hands and blow to make a shrill whistle. They cut sassafras twigs and chewed them for their flavor.

            “Winter will be here soon, and we’ll start your lessons again,” Emma reminded her sister.

            “Will you teach me?”

            “Would you prefer Mama or me?”

            “I like you because you make the lessons fun.”

            “Then that’s how it’ll be.”

            They walked around observing the trees and wildlife, and Emma shared what information she could think of about what they saw. When Emma judged it to be about four o’clock from the position of the sun, they started home.

            “Thank you for today,” Christie said, “I did have fun.”

            “I had fun too, Christie. When we get home, if Papa is upset, you go directly up to the sleeping loft. Say you’re tired or not feeling well, whichever is true. I’ll bring you up some supper as soon as I can.”

      

Building the inside of a little playhouse from moss, like Emma and Christie did, is something Mother and I did when I was very young, before I started to school. I loved it. This has become one of my fondest early memories, and perhaps that's why I wrote about it here.

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