Big Red

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In a tiny little farm in the center of the valley lived the meanest baddest big Rhode Island Red rooster ever!  Just before sunrise Big Red started in with his Cock a doodle doo – Cock a doodle doo – Cock a doodle doo .  All throughout the day he strutted around the pen where the chickens were scratching, eating, generally clucking and laying eggs.  He made sure all those chickens knew he was the king of the roost.

Also on the tiny little farm in the center of the valley lived a sweet little girl.  It was Kathy’s job to scatter the grain for food and make sure the chickens had plenty of water.  She had to go into their pen every afternoon to gather their beautiful brown eggs.

This is where the trouble began.  Big Red – thinking he was totally in charge, did not want anyone coming into his territory.  Kathy needed to collect the eggs and there was no other way to get them except by going near Big Red.  He would flutter and hiss and make noises trying to scare her.  Actually she was afraid and did not look forward to going into the pen, but it had to be done.

One particular afternoon, Big Red must have been feeling especially mean and as Kathy came in to take care of the chickens, he started running toward her, jumping to scare her.  What he didn’t realize is that she had the watering hose in her hands.  A feeling of power came over her and she turned the water on full force and began squirting Big Red showering him with water, hollering at him and chasing him all around the chicken pen. The more he ran, the more she chased and sprayed him.  He was one soaked bird!!

From that day on, Big Red never again tried to scare Kathy!

The Major Family in the Mines of Morado, ch. 1

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Long ago and far away lived a family named Major.  They were a happy family of five (six, really, if you counted their hound dog, Flops): Mr. Major, Mrs. Major, Pansy, Tommy, and Baby Rose.  It was late in the fall of the year that Baby Rose was born when the Major family fell on hard times.  Mr. Major lost his job and they lost their home and would really have been in big trouble if Mrs. Major hadn’t had a brother who owned a diamond mine up in the Mountains of Morado.  No one wanted to work the mine because it was very far away and mining was very hard work.  Also no one had ever found any diamonds there.  But the Major family had very little choice, so Mr. Major accepted the job, and the five…excuse me, Flops…six of them headed off to work and live in the Mines of Morado.

It wasn’t a very fun life.  Every morning, the whole family got up before the sun and headed down the long tunnel of the mine to the place where they were supposed to be digging.  Then they all got to work.  Mr Major and Mrs. Major worked with pick axes to dig rocks away from the wall.  Pansy and Tommy carried away the rocks that fell and piled them in a far corner.  Flops watched over Baby Rose and kept her out of trouble.  It was hard work for everyone, but they were all together, and that made them happy.  Unfortunately, even with all that digging, they never did find even one little diamond.

Then one day while Tommy was hard at work a little way away from the others, he saw something move out of the corner of his eye.  He turned his head just in time to see a black shape disappear around the corner of the opening to another tunnel that led further into the mine.  With a whistle to Flops, Tommy began to follow the shadow.  Flops was right behind him.

Tommy ran fast, but he couldn’t see the shadow anymore.  He wondered if he had just imagined it, but when he stopped to turn back he heard a noise.  Tc-tc-shhhhht.  Tc-tc-shhhhht.  Tc-tc-shhhhhht.  The sound was coming from further on down the tunnel.  Tommy moved closer.  Finally, he could see the shadow again, but he couldn’t tell what it was.  It seemed to be some sort of creature, low to the ground and creeping along.  It was pulling a large bag, which is what made the noise.

Tommy gave a great yell and ran toward the creature, with Flops in hot pursuit.  They never even got close.  Abandoning the bag, the creature ran a few more feet down the tunnel and disappeared down a hole in the floor.  Tommy and Flops ran to the edge of the hole and looked down.  It was very dark, so Tommy picked up a small rock and dropped it into the hole.  He could hear it echoing as it fell down, down, down.  The hole was very deep, much too deep for Tommy to try to follow the shadow creature.  Instead he turned around and went back to look at the bag that the creature had left behind.

The bag was very heavy.  It seemed to be full of rocks.  Tommy opened the end and pulled out one of the rocks.  It was purple and sparkled, even in the dim light.  While Tommy was holding it, he could feel it vibrating in his hand.  First his hand, then his arm, then his whole body got very warm and tingly.  He could hear a humming in his head.  The feeling lasted for just a moment, and when it was gone, the rock wasn’t sparkling anymore.  Tommy didn’t know what had happened.  He held out the rock to Flops, who sniffed it and then backed away.  Tommy decided to drag the bag of rocks back to his family and ask them what they thought.  When he stood up to go, Flops started to bark at him.

“Quiet, Flops!” said Tommy, but Flops didn’t listen.  He just barked harder.  It was strange; Flops was normally such a well-behaved dog. “What’s the matter, boy?” asked Tommy, bending down to pat Flops’ head.  Then he realized how far he had to bend down.  And that was when he saw that his feet weren’t touching the tunnel below him.

Tommy was hovering in the air about a foot off the ground.

The Dog and his Sheriff

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Once upon a time there was a dog named Cisco.  He had a sheriff named Sheriff Jones.  It was Cisco and Sheriff Jones’ job to keep order in the town of Culver’s End, and they took that job seriously.  Culver’s End wasn’t a very big town, but there were gold mines up in the mountains near there and lots of men coming and going all the time.  Most of them were good, hard-working men just trying to earn a living…but some of them were not.

One of these second kind was a man by the name of Slim Jim Donnelly.  He was a black-hearted man, wanted in seven states for every crime from cattle-rustling to train robbery to murder.  No one in Culver’s End had seen Slim Jim, but there was a rumor that he was hiding out in the area.  Cisco first heard the rumor when he was sniffing out some thieving raccoons near the Black Buffalo Saloon.  He trotted straight down to the sheriff’s office and made sure Sheriff Jones moseyed on up the street to hear the rumor, too.

That afternoon, Cisco set out to hunt for Slim Jim Donnelly, with Sheriff Jones riding by his side.  Cisco knew all the good hideouts anywhere near Culver’s End.  He had been roaming this range since he was just a little pup.  Sheriff Jones was useful, too.  He was an excellent tracker.  It was said that he could track a polar bear in a snowstorm, though Cisco never really did understand what a polar bear was supposed to be or why you couldn’t wait until it had finished snowing to hunt one down.  In any case, it didn’t take long before the sheriff saw signs that a large group of men had passed through that area.  Cisco soon had the scent as well, the distinct smell of men who were up to no good.  The dog and the sheriff followed the scent down to Graveyard Gulch.  It was a long and narrow canyon, and Cisco knew that there was a large cave on the far side which was plenty large enough for Slim Jim and his whole gang.  Cisco also knew that there was no way to get near the cave without being seen from the opening.  If Slim Jim had a guard posted (and he certainly would) they would be spotted right away if they tried to make their move.  The best plan was to wait until morning when Slim Jim’s gang headed out and take them by surprise at the canyon mouth.

Unfortunately, Sheriff Jones didn’t know Graveyard Gulch as well as Cisco did.  He slid off his horse and began to ease his way toward the cave, using scrub bushes for cover.  Cisco tried to pull him back, tried to warn him with a quiet growl, but Sheriff Jones could be stubborn at times.  He just told Cisco to “Stay” and kept on creeping forward.  Cisco sat down to assess the situation.  He knew that the sheriff was going to be spotted soon and taken captive, so he only had a little time to figure out what to do.  He reckoned his best chance was to use Sheriff Jones’ capture as a distraction and try to take the men by surprise.

Once he had a plan, Cisco moved quickly.  He headed back the way they had come and out around to the other side of Graveyard Gulch to be in position.  Sure enough, he was just barely coming up over the rise when he heard some shouts and  a loud shot.  Cisco truly hoped that the sheriff hadn’t gotten himself killed.  He trusted not.  Sheriff Jones could be quite resourceful when he needed to.  A few steps further and Cisco could see what was going on below.  Several men were dragging Sheriff Jones out of the bushes.  Judging from the way the sheriff was struggling, he was plenty alive.  Now a tall thin man came out of the cave, smoking a cigarette.   His men handed him the sheriff’s rifle.  All eyes were on Slim Jim as he broke the rifle over his knee and laughed.

It was the moment Cisco had been waiting for.  Like a shot out of a gun, he streaked out from behind the rocks and took a flying leap.  His timing was perfect.  Slim Jim had no warning at all before Cisco landed directly on his chest, knocking him onto his back.  The men erupted with shouts and drew their guns, but they couldn’t seem to figure out where to shoot.  Slim Jim was rolling around on the ground, trying to keep Cisco away from his throat.  Amidst all the chaos, Sheriff Jones was able to wrench his arms free and grab the rifle of the man nearest him.  After that, it was only a matter of time before Slim Jim and all of his gang were tied up securely in the cave with Cisco standing guard while Sheriff Jones rode back into town for a wagon to take all the men to jail.

The reward for the capture of Slim Jim Donnelly was $100.  Cisco let Sheriff Jones keep the money.  His reward was the satisfaction of a job well done.  Though he didn’t turn down the steak the sheriff offered him for dinner that night either.

The Importance of a Brick House

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Once upon a time there was a mother pig who had three sons.  Her oldest son, Mikey, was a very responsible pig who always did everything anyone asked him to do.  Her middle son, Sam, was a very kind pig who loved his family and tried to help everyone out when he could.  Her youngest son, Steve, was a very handsome pig who loved to have a good time and make everyone laugh.  The four of them lived very happily together in their rented house until one day the owner, Mr. Big Bad Wolf came by to say he was selling the house and they had to be out by the end of the month.  It was very upsetting, but there was nothing to be done.  The mother pig decided to go and live with her sister, who had an extra room.  This meant that the three sons were on their own for the first time.  Their mother was very proud of them and knew they were ready for this challenge.  She only gave them one word of advice before sending them on their way.  “Always stick together,” she said.  “Family takes care of family.”

So out the three young pigs went into the wide, wide world.  They fully intended to keep their mother’s advice, so they looked for a place where they could build a house to live together.  They knew exactly what they wanted it to be like:  an open grassy space with plenty of trees to supply Mikey’s wood shop, lots of room for Sam to have a garden, and a stream nearby for Steve to fish in.

Everything was going well until they met a man who was selling straw houses.  “These are the finest straw houses you will ever see,” the man claimed.  “Everyone who is anyone is building their houses out of straw these days.  Straw is the latest fashion.”  And he showed the three pigs many pictures of rich and famous pigs posing outside of their straw houses.  Steve was very impressed by these pictures.  He imagined how cool he would look in a house of straw.  His brothers, however, did not agree.  They thought the houses looked silly and flimsy, but Steve could not be convinced.  Finally the brothers agreed, not because they liked the straw houses but because they saw that Steve was going to buy the house no matter what and they wanted to stick together as their mother had advised.  That was when the man told them the houses were only big enough for one pig each.  They would have to buy three houses to have room for all of them.  The older two brothers tried again to tell Steve what a bad idea this was, but Steve would not listen.  He bought that house and moved in at once.  And Mikey and Sam were left to look for a place to live as near to Steve as possible.

It didn’t take long for them to find another man.  This man was selling wood houses.  They were much sturdier than the straw houses and were very handsome to look at.  “This is a very wise purchase,” said the man.  “Properly taken care of, you will be able to sell this house for more than you bought it in only two years time.”  And he showed the two pigs all the numbers.  The houses were very expensive, and Sam did not want to borrow money from the man to buy their house.  Mikey did not agree.  He argued that they could make money by selling the house later and it was only being responsible to buy something that was such a good investment.  He insisted for so long that Sam finally agreed.  But when they went to buy the house, the man advised them not to live in it together.  “Two pigs means more wear and tear on the house.  I suggest that you each buy your own house and that you stay away from home as much as possible if you want to keep in nice for resale in the future.  Whatever you do, don’t use the kitchen.  That will only wear it out.  There are plenty of nice restaurants around here that can supply all you need to eat.”  Now Sam loved to cook.  That was why he wanted to have a garden.  Once again, he tried to talk Mikey out of buying the house, but Mikey just said, “You go on and look for a place that’s more like you want.  I’ll buy this and live here for a couple of years.  Then, when I’ve sold it and made some money, maybe we can talk about living together again.”

So Mikey bought his wood house and Sam went sadly on his way to look for a place of his own close to his brothers.  In no time at all, he came across an old man.  The old man was selling his large brick house.  “My health isn’t what it used to be, and I live here all alone now,” said the old man.  ‘It’s time I went to live with my daughter.  She’s been after me for years to do it.”  Sam had never seen anything more perfect than that house.  It sat in a wide open field with trees all around and a little stream running along one side.  Behind the house was a large garden.  The house had plenty of rooms and a large kitchen with an open fire for cooking.  Unfortunately, now that the other brothers had bought other houses, Sam did not have enough money to buy the brick house all by himself.  Instead, he made a deal with the man that he would work for him for a year to make up the difference in the price.

And so the year went by.  Sam lived in a little hut out behind the brick house and worked for the old man.  Mikey slept at the wood house and ate at restaurants every night to keep the kitchen fresh and new.  And Steve threw parties in the straw house and made friends who thought he was very funny.  At last the day came when Sam’s year was up and he was the owner of the brick house.  That night he invited his brothers to dinner and cooked a big meal over the open fire.  He showed his brothers how much room there was and invited them to come and live with him.  But Steve didn’t want to give up his exciting life in the straw house, and Mikey still had a year to go before he could turn a profit on the wood house, so they both said no.

The next day, the troubles started.  Mr. Big Bad Wolf had decided to build a highway right through that portion of the woods.  He got permission to knock down all the houses that were in his way.  Soon his agents came knocking on the door of the straw house.  They told Steve that his house was going to be knocked down unless he could pay the extra cost of running the road around it.  Steve had no money.  He had spent it all buying the straw house and throwing parties in it.  He begged and pleaded, but they did not listen.  They told him to get out before they brought it down while he was still inside.  Steve refused to leave…until he saw the bulldozers coming.  Then he ran out the door and straight down the road to Mikey’s house, where he told Mikey all his troubles.  Unfortunately, Mikey was having troubles of his own.   The same agents had been to his house.  They gave him one week to get out before it was torn down.  They had told him he would be paid for his house, but they were only offering half of what he had paid for it.  He wanted to see a lawyer and fight this, but he had no money.  All that eating out at restaurants was expensive.  For a week, the two pigs lived in the wood house and tried to figure out what to do.  They were too ashamed of all their troubles to go to Sam for help until  the week was gone and the bulldozers came and they had no choice but to head down the road to the brick house.

At the brick house, Sam had just learned of what was going on.  Just hours before his brothers arrived, the agents of Mr. Big Bad Wolf had come with their notice that he had two weeks before his house would be torn down.  Sam was just thinking about what he could do when he saw his brothers trudging up the lane.  He laughed with relief and ran to meet them.  Together they thought of a plan.  All they needed was enough money to pay for the road to run around the brick house.  So they got to work.  Mikey spent hours and hours in his wood shop carving wooden bowls and spoons and little toys for children.  Sam could be found all day long in his kitchen baking pies.  Steve went early every morning to the stream to catch as many fish as possible.  And every afternoon they would head to the market to sell the things they had made and caught.

Two weeks later when the bulldozers arrived, the three brothers were standing outside their house with no intention of leaving it.  The workers told them to get out of the way, but they wouldn’t.  They threatened to call Mr. Big Bad Wolf himself.  Sam said that sounded like a good idea.  Shortly, Mr. Big Bad Wolf arrived, quite put out that he had been interrupted in the middle of his busy day.  He had all his contracts in his hands.  “This house is coming down, boys,” he said in his booming voice.  “You might as well face the facts.  It’s all legal here as you can see.  Unless you can pay for us to go around (and I know you don’t have that kind of money) this is happening, and it’s happening now.”

Sam just smiled and nodded to Steve.  Steve came forward pushing a wheel barrow.  Inside the wheel barrow were piles and piles of money.  “I think that will do the trick,” said Mikey.

Mr. Big Bad Wolf couldn’t believe what he was seeing, but when they counted the money, it was indeed enough.  So the workers went to work building the road around the brick the house.  And the brothers went back inside, promising each other that they would always live together and work together from now on.

They kept that promise.  And they never saw Mr. Big Bad Wolf again.

Celeste and the Tree of the Four Winds, ch. 3

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Walking on the clouds was a wonderful feeling.  Her feet felt as if they were sinking into plush carpet.  The air was brisk and cool around her, while the sun warmed her from above.  The sky was a brilliant blue and the various shapes of the clouds around her made interesting landscapes. Celeste could see the tree ahead of her, growing steadily closer, and for a while it seemed that her struggles were almost at an end.

Then the eagle came.

Swooping down from the sky as if from nowhere, it was fully ten times bigger than any eagle Celeste had ever seen.  Its wicked-looking curved beak was as big as her head, and its razor-sharp talons were easily big enough to pick her right up off her feet and carry her off as if she were a fish.  And Celeste had plenty of opportunity to see that beak and those talons up close because the eagle repeatedly dived straight for her head.  Celeste ducked and dodged and more than once fell headlong into the clouds, coming up with a mouth full of water.  She had never been so terrified in her life, and without thinking she began to sing the lullaby again as she ran.  She sprinted toward the tree with her head as low as she could keep it, expecting at any moment to feel the sting of those cruel talons and beak.  The pain never came.  The eagle continued to assault her, soaring up only to swoop down toward her again, beating her head with its wings, but somehow Celeste always managed to just evade disaster.  At last, just when she thought her heart would burst and her legs give out, she stumbled one last time and felt her head hit something solid.  It was a root.  She had made it to the Tree of the Four Winds.  With one last heart-stopping shriek, the eagle swooped up and perched on the highest branch, where it sat glaring at her with its beady eyes.

Celeste was trembling all over.  She couldn’t make her arms and legs move at all.  Her voice had completely given out.  She didn’t even have the strength to be amazed that the eagle had not killed her.  She just lay there gasping for breath and trying to pull herself together.  After what seemed like hours, Celeste finally felt strong enough to move again.  Very cautiously, she lifted her head and looked up.  The eagle hadn’t moved.  High up in the tree, Celeste could see some red fruit.  It should be possible to climb up to them.  Celeste lowered her head again.  What was she going to do?  If she tried to climb the tree to pick the fruit, would the eagle attack her again?  But what choice did she have?  She couldn’t just lie there forever.  Besides, her mother needed that fruit.  With that thought, Celeste stood up.

The eagle let out a loud cry, but it didn’t move.  Taking heart from that, though still trembling, Celeste carefully began to climb the tree.  Fortunately, the branches were low and close together, so that climbing was really not too difficult.  If it weren’t for the bright eyes of the eagle staring at her through the leaves, Celeste would have found it almost enjoyable.  As it was, she had a hard time forcing herself to go on.  Every new step up brought her closer to those waiting talons.

Finally, Celeste could see the fruit on a branch just above her.  Bracing her weight against the tree trunk she reached up.  The eagle shook out it’s wings.  Celeste wrapped her hand around the fruit.  The eagle let out a harsh scream.  Celeste pulled, and the fruit came away from the branch.

For a long while it was completely silent.

Then a voice said, “Well done, daughter.”

Celeste was so surprised she almost fell out of the tree.  She looked all around to see who was speaking to her.  It wasn’t until he spoke again that she realized it was the eagle.

“I knew you would be the one,” he said.

“You…but you…but why were you attacking me?”

“I am the guardian of the tree.  It is my job to keep away the unworthy.  I had to see if you were worthy.”

“You mean you never meant to hurt me?”

“Not if you had the courage to continue.”

Celeste thought about that for a long time.  Then she said, “Now that I have the fruit, can I just go?  You won’t chase me anymore?”

“I won’t chase you anymore.  You have proved yourself worthy.”

“I’d better get going then,” Celeste said.  “I may be too late as it is.  It is a long journey home, and my mother is very weak.”

“There is a faster way, you know,” said the eagle.

“Where is it?” asked Celeste eagerly.  “Could you show me?”

“I am the way,” said the eagle.  He flexed his giant talons.

Celeste just stared.  Was he suggesting what she thought he was suggesting?  The very thought of it terrified her.

“If you trust me, I can have you home before the sun sets.”

Thinking of her mother, Celeste pushed down all her fears and nodded her head.  With no further warning, the eagle swooped down, seized her in his talons and flew away.  Whether an eagle’s view was beautiful, Celeste could not have said.  She kept her eyes shut tight the whole time, clutching the fruit in her hands.

At long last, the eagle sailed down, down out of the sky and lightly set Celeste on the grass outside her own little cottage.

“Thank you, oh thank you!” cried Celeste breathlessly, and she was already running inside.

It was very dim in the house.  There was no fire on the hearth.

“Mother?” called Celeste.  There was no answer.  She began to fear the worst, that she had already come too late.

Quickly she ran to the bedroom door and opened it.  Her mother was lying on the bed, pale and still, but Celeste could see that her chest was slowly rising and falling.  She was still alive.  Celeste cut a small piece from the fruit and held it up to her mothers lips and watched as she slowly ate it.  Almost immediately a little color came back into her mother’s cheeks.  Then she opened her eyes and smiled.

“Celeste,” she said in a very faint voice, “you are here.  I was so worried.”

“I went to get this for you to eat, Mother.  It will make you well again.  Please, eat more.”

And she did.  And by the morning all her pain was gone, and she got up out of bed and began to do her usual chores, and the doctor came and shook his head again, but this time it was in wonder that such a miracle had occurred.

Celeste and her mother continued to live very happily in their cottage from that day on, and if you walked past their windows in the evenings, you would hear a beautiful voice singing a lovely lullaby, and you would feel, just for a moment, as if you could do absolutely anything.

Celeste and the Tree of the Four Winds, ch. 2

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Celeste stared at the old woman, “I can save my mother?  What can I do?  I don’t know anything about medicine or miracles or anything at all.  I’m just a girl.”

“Precisely,” the wise woman replied.  “It’s precisely because you are just a girl that only you can save her.  Listen close, child, and I will tell you what you came to find out.  There is a cure for your mother…”

Celeste gasped, “What is it?  Do you have it?”

“Patience, child.  There is a cure for your mother, but no one can give it to you.   If she is to live, she must eat an apple from the Tree of the Four Winds which grows all alone among the clouds.”

“Among the clouds?  What does that mean?”

“Among the clouds there is a tree.  Its roots are in the sky and its branches touch heaven.  But it is said that only the young and pure can climb to the Tree of the Four Winds and safely pick its fruit.  I can show you the path, but I cannot go with you.  No one can.”

Celeste nodded.  It was all so hard to take in, but she did understand at last why the old woman had said that the time was short.  If she had a long journey to find this tree and and its fruit, she must go now.  Her mother would not last more than a few days.

With a small groan, the wise woman stood up and hobbled along the path that led away from the house and towards the father.  She could move surprisingly quickly.  She led Celeste into the forest and up a small hill.  As they climbed, the trees got thinner and thinner until they reached the top, which had no trees at all except for one that had fallen long ago and now was a mossy log.  The old woman dropped onto this natural seat with a sigh.  Celeste waited patiently for her to catch her breath.  After a few minutes, the old woman seemed to feel better, but still she said nothing.  Celeste began to find it harder and harder to be patient.  Finally she ventured to say, “Will we be going on soon?”

The wise woman smiled.  “I will go no farther.  You can see your way from here.”

Celeste looked eagerly around, but she couldn’t see any path.  She glanced back at the old woman, but she was gazing off into the distance…gazing up.  Celeste followed her gaze.  There in the lovely blue sky, she saw clouds, great billowing fluffy clouds and funny little puffball clouds and one cloud that was thin and wispy and had a lone tree growing from it.

Celeste felt her heart fall.  How was she ever going to get way up there?  She would need wings like a bird.  Or a ladder as tall as a mountain.  A mountain.  Celeste looked at the Duros Mountains far off in the distance.  The tallest of them, Mount Hart, had his head in the clouds.  Maybe, just maybe, if she could climb that mountain and step out onto those clouds, she could find a path through the clouds to the Tree of the Four Winds.  The whole idea sounded crazy, but she had no choice.  She must try something.  Without further delay, Celeste said goodbye to the wise woman and began to walk in the direction of the Duros Mountains.

It was not an easy journey.  The forest was thick and tangled.  Twigs scratched Celeste’s face and branches snagged and tore her dress.   At the end of the first day, she was only halfway to Mount Hart, and all the food in her small bag was gone.  When it was too dark to see her way, Celeste lay down under the trees and tried to sleep, but she was stiff and sore and more than a little scared.  It was a long night.  The second day was no better than the first.  The trees thinned out and walking was easier, but now Celeste was very hungry.  She found a few berries to eat as she walked, but they didn’t do much to take away the gnawing in her stomach.

Late in the afternoon, Celeste finally stepped out of the forest and saw Mount Hart standing before her.  She was very tired and knew there were not many hours until dark, but she did not wait.  Pausing only to take a long drink from a stream, Celeste began to climb the mountain.  The mountain was even more difficult than the forest.  The way was steep, and Celeste’s legs cried out from the effort of carrying her higher.  Often, she had to use her hands to pull herself up, and the rocks scraped and cut her.  She was hungrier than ever.  Once again, it grew dark.  Once again, Celeste was forced to stop and wait out the night.  This time she did not sleep at all.  Her only bed was hard rock, and a cold wind made her shiver.  She was very worried about her mother.  She knew that if this journey took much longer, she would arrive too late to be of any help.  The task seemed hopeless.  Celeste huddled in a miserable ball and began to sing softly.  She sang the little lullaby that her mother loved so well, and as she sang, she felt her courage rise again.  In spite of the cold and the darkness and the worry, for just a while, Celeste felt sure that she could do anything she needed to do.  She would save her mother; there could be no doubt about it.  She sang and sang until her voice gave out, and then she wrapped her cloak around her tighter and waited until morning.

In the morning light, Celeste’s courage was strengthened.  This may be an impossible task, but she would not give up trying.  The sun warmed her back as she began to climb higher and higher, humming softly under her breath.  It was mid-morning when Celeste climbed right into the middle of a cloud.  It was cold and wet and misty all around her, but she was so relieved she began to laugh.  With new energy, she climbed higher still, until at last she came out above the clouds.  Every way she looked, she could see white puffs of clouds stretching out to the horizon, and far off in the distance, just a little higher than the other clouds, she could see the faint wispy cloud that carried the Tree of the Four Winds.

Celeste set down her bag.  Something told her that she would not be allowed to bring anything with her on this part of the journey.  With a deep breath, she closed her eyes and stepped away from the solid rock onto the nearest puff of white.  She stopped, waiting to feel herself fall, but the feeling never came.  Finally, she peeped her eyes open and looked down, amazed.  She had done it.  She was standing on the clouds.

The day Papa changed schools

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When my Papa, your great-grandfather, was 13 years old, he went to junior high school in a small town in Oklahoma.  His daddy was pretty well known in the town because he had been in charge of building all the roads.  That year, the year that Papa was 13, the old principal of the junior high school retired and a new man, George Pierce, became the principal.  Principal Pierce was a big man who walked with a little limp, and he didn’t like Papa’s daddy because he disagreed with him about how the town should be run.  The principal knew who Papa’s daddy was, so he watched Papa and waited for a chance to make trouble.  That chance came one day when Papa’s teacher asked him to run down to the corner drug store to pick up some medicine for her.  Papa went down, got what the teacher needed and came straight back to school.  Just as he came inside, though, Principal Pierce saw him and accused him of skipping school.  Papa tried to explain that he’d just been down to pick something up for Miss Lawrence, but Principal Pierce wouldn’t accept that.  He said that he was going to give Papa a whipping for skipping school.  At first Papa didn’t think too much of it.  Spankings were pretty common then, and a little whack wouldn’t hurt a strong boy like him.  But Principal Pierce had something else in mind.  He went down to the shop teacher and had him make up a special paddle, a big one with holes drilled in it.

When he came back, Papa said, “You aren’t going to touch me with that paddle.”

“I certainly am,” said Principal Pierce.

“If you touch me with that paddle, I’ll tell my daddy and my brother, and you know what they’ll do to you,” said Papa.

“I am the principal of this school, and I’m telling you that I am either going to paddle you with this or you can go home suspended for three days.”

“Oh, I’ll go home,” said Papa, “but not for any three days.”  And with that, he walked out, cleaned out his locker and marched straight down the street to where the Catholic school was.  Protestant kids could enroll there by paying one dollar a week, so Papa signed himself right up.  He had a job at nights, and he knew he could pay for it.

And he never even told his Mama and Daddy.  He paid that dollar a week all by himself, and every morning he left for school with his twin sister, and then she went to the public school and he went on down the street.   That was the last year that Papa went to school, and the beginning of his independence.

Glitterfly

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Once upon a time there was a little girl named Sarah Lyn who loved everything pink and sparkly.  Her closet was full of pink dresses with sparkly stars and sparkly dresses with pink polka dots.  Her room had pink walls and a pink rug and a pink bed and sparkly pillows and a sparkly chair and sparkly stars hanging everywhere.  Every day she put on her pink sparkly coat and picked up her pink sparkly backpack and headed off to school.  She did NOT like school.  It wasn’t the teacher or the other kids or the studying that she didn’t like; those things were actually pretty fun.  What she hated about school was that there was nothing pink and sparkly there.  She hated riding the dull yellow school bus in the morning and she hated going inside the drab beige building.   She hated sitting at the boring brown desk and writing on plain white paper with ordinary gray pencil.  And she hated recess because all the other girls would swing on the black swing set (ugh!) or play with the orange ball (ew!).  Most of the time during recess, Sarah Lyn just went to the corner of the yard where some pretty flowers grew and lay down on her back and stared up into the sky, which wasn’t pink but did have a sort of sparkly glow to it.

One day, as Sarah lay and looked into the sky during recess, she heard a buzzing in her ear.   Thinking it was a mosquito, she swatted it away.  It came back.  She swatted it away again.  It came back again.  Extremely annoyed, Sarah Lyn sat up.  She saw something like a little bee buzzing from flower to flower.  At first Sarah didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but after a minute she stopped to rub her eyes.  Was she imagining it or was each flower changing color after the bee landed on it?  It was true.  The little yellow flowers turned red and the little purple flowers turned pink and the little pink flowers turned yellow.  Even better, each flower was a little more sparkly than it had been before.  In a flash, Sarah Lyn jumped up and started trying to catch that little bee.  It was hard to do.  The bee was quick and darted from flower to flower before Sarah Lyn could get close.  She didn’t give up, though.  She had a new idea.  She picked one of the little purple flowers and held very still with it in her hand.  Before long, the little bee buzzed right up to the flower and landed.  Quick as a wink, Sarah Lyn closed her hands around the buzzing creature.

“Hey!” came a muffled voice from inside her hands.  Sarah Lyn was so surprised she almost let go.  “Hey!” it said again.  “Let me go!”

Very carefully, Sarah Lyn opened her fingers just a crack and put her eye up to the hole.  “What are you?” she said.

“I’m a glitterfly, thank you very much, and I was just minding my own business when you so rudely snatched me up.  Now let. me. go.”

“But you were making those flowers colorful and sparkly.”

“Yes, of course I was.  I told you I’m a glitterfly.  Now please let me get back to it.”

“Can you make anything sparkly?”

“Of course.”

“Could you make anything pink?”

“Of course, I can change the color of anything.  Really, you’re wasting my time here.  Please let me go.”

But Sarah Lyn had a much better idea.  “I will make you a deal,” she said to the glitterfly.  “I will let you go tonight before I go to bed if you will turn everything I tell you to pink and sparkly.”

The glitterfly was indignant.  “I can’t make everything just pink.  My job is to make things colorful.”

“Pink and sparkly or I’m putting you in a jar,” said Sarah Lyn.

“All right then,” the glitterfly said sulkily.

So Sarah Lyn went happily back into the school, carrying the glitterfly in her hands.  The first thing she did was to touch her desk, and it turned all pink and sparkly.  Sarah Lyn smiled a very big smile.  Then she touched her pencil and paper and turned them both pink and sparkly.  She carefully zipped the glitterfly into her pocket and wrote all her schoolwork in glittery pink.  When it was time for music class, Sarah Lyn took the glitterfly out of her pocket and quickly skipped around the room touching all the desks and turning them pink and sparkly.  She touched the blackboard and turned it into a pinkboard.  All the other kids stared.  Sarah Lyn touched the fish tank and suddenly there was a sparkle fish swimming in pink water.  The other kids shouted.

“Sarah Lyn, what are you doing?” asked the teacher, taking her arm.  Suddenly the teacher turned bright pink and sparkly.  Now Sarah Lyn stared, too.  She slowly backed away from her teacher and accidentally bumped into a boy in her class.  He turned pink and sparkly.

“Stop it!” shouted Sarah Lyn to the glitterfly.  She looked down at her hand.  It was all pink and sparkly.  With a gasp, Sarah Lyn let go of the glitterfly.  Faster than you could say, “That poor pink boy!” the glitterfly darted out the window and flew away.  Sarah Lyn burst into tears.  She wasn’t the only one.  The little boy had tears in eyes, too, and the teacher was quietly sobbing.  Even the fish looked as if he wanted to cry.

No one knew what to do.  The principal came and all the kids parents were called.  The parents were quite upset.  No amount of washing or scrubbing or rubbing would make that pink come off.  They called in the school nurse and she called a doctor, but he had no medicine for unpinking people.  Just when everyone had given up hope, one of the little girls gave a gasp.  She was pointing at the chalkboard.  It was black.  Everyone began to talk at once.  The pink was seeping out of the desks.  The fish was beginning to look quite dull.  The teacher’s hair was getting browner by the minute.  In no time at all everyone and everything was back to normal.  The glitterfly’s changes were only meant to last for a little while.  Laughing and cheering, all of the students and teachers and parents and friends went home to celebrate.  Sarah Lyn was left in the classroom all alone, staring at her pink and sparkly hand.  She had held the glitterfly the longest, and her pink was never going to fade.   Sarah Lyn sat and thought for a long, long time.

Then she stood up and walked home and used her sparkly pink hand to paint all the walls of her room a nice cheerful yellow.

Her reflection

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Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Annie who lived by the side of very big lake.  Every morning before she went to school she would walk to the edge of the water and sit on a rock to watch her reflection while she combed out her hair.  She liked the way her face rippled in the water and her normally pale hair looked all seaweed green and exotic.   She would always stay there, sitting by the water, until her mother called to her that it was time to leave for school.

Then one day, just as Annie heard her mother calling and turned to go, she heard a splash behind her.  Quickly, she turned around, but she couldn’t see anything.  There was her reflection the same as always, but it seemed to waver a bit more than usual.  Annie’s mother called again, and she hurried off to school, but all day long she could not stop wondering.

When she got home from school, Annie decided to try something.  As soon as she had finished combing her hair, she moved her face very close to the water.  She smiled.  Her reflection smiled back.  She frowned.  Her reflection frowned back.  She opened her eyes wide and puffed out her cheeks and wrinkled her nose.  Her reflection laughed.  Annie jumped back in surprise.

With a little swish and a splash, a little girl’s head broke through the water right where Annie’s reflection had just been.  She looked very much like Annie, but she had hair the color of seaweed and very pale gray skin.  The girl was still laughing, but she stopped when she saw how terrified Annie looked.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” the little girl cried.  “I didn’t mean to frighten you.  I never meant for you to see me at all, but yesterday I slipped and then today…and then…oh, you were just so funny!”  She laughed again, so hard that tears ran down her face.

“Who are you?” asked Annie.

“I’m Ina,” the little girl said.

“But where did you come from?”

“From nowhere.  From here.  I live in the water.”

“You live in the water?  How can you live in the water?”

“How can you live on land?”

“I…everyone lives…that is, I don’t know.  I just do.”

“And I just live in the water.  I never even knew that anyone lived up on the land in the air until one day I was hunting for snails when I saw you there combing your hair.”

The two girls talked for a long time.  Annie told Ina all about her family and her house and what she learned at school, and Ina told Annie all about her home under the sea, a city built of carved rocks and sculpted sea shells.  Annie couldn’t imagine anything more wonderful.  She wanted so badly to see that city, but she couldn’t breath underwater like Ina could and she knew she could never hold her breath so long.  When she said so to Ina, Ina smiled.  She swam away for a moment and came back with a tiny pebble.  She said that all Annie had to do was eat the pebble and she would be able to breath under the water until the sun set.  Without a second thought, Annie ate the pebble.

Moments later, Ina had taken Annie by the hand and led her down, down under the lake.  It felt wonderful to be swimming and swimming and never to have to stop for air.  They passed beautiful fish in all colors of the rainbow.  They picked a bouquet of underwater lilies.  The swam some more, and soon Ina said that they were close to her home.  Annie was so excited.  She couldn’t wait to see the giant carved shell that Ina had said was her school.  Just at that moment, two men swam out from behind some clumps of seaweed.  They each had a long, carved stick, which they crossed in front of the two girls.

“Halt!” they shouted.  “Where are you going?”

“It’s just me, Princess Ina,” said Annie’s new friend.

“We know you, Princess, but what is she doing here?”

“She’s my new friend, and she’s coming home with me.”

“No, Princess, it is forbidden for her kind to enter our city.”

Ina was shocked.  She begged and pleaded.  She got angry and yelled.  She ordered the men to let them pass.  But they only said the same thing over and over: “It is forbidden.”  Finally Ina grabbed Annie’s hand and began to swim right at the men.  They each waved their sticks, and Annie was afraid, but the men did not hit them.  She was just about to sigh in relief when she felt a tendril of seaweed wrapping around her wrist.  Somehow the men had made the seaweed grow and grow and it was tying her legs together and tethering each wrist.  Annie tried to pull away, but the seaweed only pulled tighter.  It began to wrap around her waist now, and then her shoulders.  Annie was sure it was going to strangle her.  The seaweed just kept growing.  Annie’s chest began to hurt.

Then suddenly there was a blinding purple light, and the pain went away.  It took a moment before Annie could see anything again, but she could feel the seaweed falling away.  When the light finally faded, Annie saw Ina, both hands wrapped around a glowing purple stone, a look of intense concentration on her face.  The two guards had disappeared.  Annie did not know what to say.  She just stared at her new friend as Ina carefully put the stone back into a pouch that hung from her belt.

Ina took Annie’s hand again.  “I’m sorry,” she said, and this time as she swam away it was in the direction of the shore where they had met.  It wasn’t until Annie was back on dry land that Ina spoke again.  “I didn’t know that would happen,” she said.  “I hope you will still be my friend.”

“I’ll always be your friend,” said Annie.  And she always was.  Neither girl ever saw the other’s home, but every day they would meet in the mornings before they had to go to school, right at the place where the land and the water meets.

The tadpoles

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Once, when I was a little girl, my brother and I brought home some very strange pets.  We had been for a walk with our parents and had seen some big rain puddles with little wriggling creatures inside.  My daddy said that they were tadpoles.  We got a jar and scooped up a bunch of water with little tadpoles in it and carried them back to our house.  Out in the back yard, my daddy dug a big hole and filled it with water from a hose.  Then he laid a wooden plank across the hole, and we put the tadpoles into their new home.  Every morning before school, my brother had to go out and fill the hole with water, so the tadpoles would have plenty of room to swim, and every afternoon when he got home we would stretch ourselves out on the plank and look into the water to see what our new pets were doing.  As the weeks went by, the tadpoles began to change.  First they grew little stumps on their bodies.  Then the stumps grew longer and longer until they looked like arms and legs.  Then their little tails started to shrink away.  Finally, one morning when we went outside, there were no more tadpoles in the water!  Where did they go?  How did we lose our pets?  And then we saw something else, lots of little somethings, a hundred of them, hopping unexpectedly up out of the grass.  Our tadpoles had completed their transformation and now our pets were frogs!