MARBLE ALERT!
Like many parents, when my kids were young I would lie between them at night and tell them a bedtime story. It was difficult to come up with a new story each night. Some stories were funny, others were adventurous. Some long, some short (which was never really allowed). There were a lot of “Choose Your Own Adventure” stories as well, which were some of my favorite.
Of all the stories, there were only two that we remembered the next day. Marble Alert! and the one where the girl jumped on her trampoline higher and higher and higher and higher until she ultimately jumped to the moon. That one sounds far more fantastic than Marble Alert! But I was not the judge. The kids would ask me to tell Marble Alert! many, many more nights to come until everyone was too big to fit in that little bed. The first time I told it I made it up as I went along, and it went like this:
MARBLE ALERT!
Henry lived with his family in this house.
On top of the hill.
Outside of the town.
Henry collected marbles.
Small marbles.
Big marbles.
Shiny marbles.
Dull marbles.
He had marbles in his closet
Marbles in his socks
Marbles in his toys
Marbles in his bed
This day Henry had a brilliant idea.
“I’ll gather all my marbles in one big pile.
It shall be as high as a mile”
Marble after marble he added to the pile.
It was as tall as a cat
Then as tall as a dog
Then as tall as Henry himself.
Soon Henry's pile became too tall for his room.
So he moved his pile of marbles outside.
In front of his house.
Plenty of space.
As Henry stacked his marbles the pile grew.
And grew
And grew
And grew
And grew
And grew
Henry did not understand about hills and gravity and physics.
Soon he would
Soon indeed
When the pile gave way it was a sight to see.
A river of marbles gushing down and away!
Down they go
Down they go
All of the marbles right toward the town!
"Marble Alert!" cried Henry
"Marble Alert!"
"Marble Alert!"
The river of marbles seemed to grow as it picked up speed.
Rushing through houses.
Rushing through cars.
"Run for your lives!" yelled the baker's wife.
"On top of the roofs!" was shouted as well
The young and the old
The dogs and the cats
Went up and up and up to escape.
At the end of the road at the center of town, the marble sea crashed into a stop.
Silence.
Finally there was silence and all was still.
The old and the young
The dogs and the cats
All came down from their high safe places.
The Mayor said "MMMMMGH!"
"Who did this?!"
Henry knew there was trouble.
He thought he might run.
Somehow he said "These marbles are mine"
Then from high above a cheer was heard. Then another.
"Whoopee!"
"Yippee,"
"Watch out below!"
Henry and the Mayor ran to the great pile of marbles
Why was there yelling
Was it terribly bad?
There were skiers and sledders and tubers and sliders
Everyone loved Henry’s great pile of marbles!
Soon people came from towns far away
To see and to play on the great marble mountain
The mayor he charged a fair little price to play on his new mountain.
But the townspeople named it Mount Henry
It was a mountain indeed.
Walking back to his house on the hill Henry noticed a piece of foil on the ground.
Forming it into a ball Henry had a terrific idea..
