The offer to have such a sweet and lovely person come and visit him regularly was doing very little to convince Boc that he wasn't much better off as a tree; in fact, someone had even come and apologized...to him, of all people!...earlier, just for being a tree! Well, for being one that could talk, but all the same...

But if he were to remain a tree, then he couldm't very well be a seamster now, could he? Odd enough, a seamster who was a demi-human! One that was a tree? Unheard of! Impossible, actually, since he could barely even move his branches, much less hold a sewing needle with them! And if he never became a seamster, then he could never rightly, truly, do well by his dear old mum...

"I suppose you could at least try," he decided. "Might not work out, anyway, besides, but it certainly couldn't hurt..."

Ohh, he hoped not, anyway! He'd been battered and bruised and beaten by the others well enough!