A Favor for Sticktight

The following morning, Meri finally reaches The Tree of Ticket Leaves. Three leaves on it---or are they tickets?---take her to three unbelievable adventures. In The Land of Too Shy Izzits, she meets one of the izzits who likes to be called Nart when he’s feeling especially shy and Art when he’s feeling better. So his real name is Art or Nart. I can’t tell you where the second leaf takes her. It’s a surprise. But I can say that the tree sends Meri’s friend, Sylvestra, to The Land of Tiny Shiny Chains while she’s gone. “Tulip ink.” Sticktight is an apple tree with yellow apples who speaks in an unforgettable way when Meri hears him in The Autumnforest. “Shirt sunshine,” she next heard---she was very close. “Or should I say, ’shirt shunshine,’ since if you wear a shirt, you don’t get shined on. Of course, I don’t wear a shirt. I want all the sunshine I can get. But hum, wait a minute. Suppose that a shirt would fit me? Would I wear it? I wood! Yes, I wood! Hah! Yes, I am! What am I going to do with myself?!” And then the tree said something truly unexpected and devastating to the girl. “You see, this is my last day to talk.” “Eyelash saddles.”