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Illustration by Luke Age: 7
Ms. Angie Cook's 2nd grade class |
Xavier the frog sat on a lily pad
in Polliwog Pond.
He was very
close to drifting off to sleep when Emerson the dragonfly flew up and landed on
a cattail next to the lily pad.
“Hey,
Xavier,” called Emerson. “Come see
what I found over by the fence between the tall grass and the people yard.”
“I
was about to take a nap,” said Xavier.
“Can’t you just bring it to me?”
“No,”
replied Emerson. “It’s too
big. It’s really cool!! Come on, the butterfly twins are already
there waiting.”
As
Emerson flew off, Xavier grumpily jumped off the lily pad onto the shore and
started making his way to the fence.
Before long he came across Hayden the turtle taking a nap inside his
shell. Xavier decided if he
couldn’t take a nap, then Hayden couldn’t either. He hopped up and started banging on Hayden’s shell.
Slowly
Hayden stuck his head out of his shell and said, “Hey, what’s the big
idea.
I was asleep.”
“Emerson
found this thing over by the fence between the tall grass and the people yard,
“ said Xavier.
“He wants everyone
to come see it.
Come on,
sleepyhead.
You need to get
started if you want to get there before dark.”
Hayden
gave Xavier a grumpy look, but then popped his legs out of his shell and
started for the fence. Xavier
hopped beside him for a minute, but then decided he didn’t want to go that slow
and left Hayden behind.
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Illustration by Maridyth Age: 8
Ms. Angie Cook's 2nd grade class |
Before
long Xavier noticed something shiny in the tall grass beside the path.
He knew he was far ahead of Hayden so
he decided to go investigate.
He
hopped over to where the object was to discover it was just a piece of shiny
material that seemed to have no purpose.
He sat there a minute trying to decide what he would do next.
Meanwhile, Hayden slowly and steadily
made his way to the fence.
Xavier
shook himself awake and realized he had dozed off while he was sitting
there.
He wondered how long he had
been asleep.
Hoping he had only
dozed for a few minutes he made his way to the path and headed for the
fence.
After he had traveled for a
few minutes without coming across Hayden, he decided he had only been asleep
for a few minutes and slowed down his pace.
When
Xavier came around a corner, he spotted a big juicy fly at the edge of the
path.
He shot out his tongue, but
missed the fly.
He set off in
pursuit hoping to get a little snack for his journey.
He figured he was still way ahead of Hayden and had time for
a little diversion.
Meanwhile,
Hayden slowly and steadily made his way to the fence.
The
fly led Xavier on a wild chase through the tall grass.
When he finally caught it, Xavier
realized he was back where he started on the banks of Polliwog Pond.
He made his way to the path and hurried
trying to catch up with Hayden.
He
went for a long time without seeing any sign of Hayden.
Surely, Hayden was not that far ahead
of him.
He hopped faster.
Xavier just knew that any minute he
would catch up with Hayden, but with each bend and turn in the path Xavier saw
no sign of Hayden.
Finally, he reached
the fence, and there waiting on him was Emerson, the butterfly twins, Summer
and Madison, and Hayden.
“Where
have you been?” asked Emerson agitated.
“Hayden’s been here for 10 minutes, and he said you left him behind a
long time ago.”
Xavier
was in shock. He really did not
want to admit he had been asleep and then taken on a wild goose chase by a
fly. “I got sidetracked,” admitted
Xavier turning red as a beet.
“Obviously,”
said the twins at the same time.
“Now, Emerson,” said Summer and Madison finished, “where is this thing
that everyone has been gathered to see.”
Emerson
led them around to the corner of the fence.
On the ground was a toy castle that a child had left
outside.
For the rest of the
afternoon the four friends played like they were knights defending their
castle.
Xavier decided it was best
not to explain his “sidetracks” to his friends and purposed never to let
himself ever get that distracted again.
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