Once upon a time, Bo and his baby brother Arthur lived with their parents in a cabin high on the snowy snowy mountain. One winter day, Bo and Arthur were playing in their snowsuits on the porch. When they got hungry, Bo went inside to get them some food.
Arthur was alone on the porch for the first time. He felt the sun shining on him through the needles of the trees outside the fence. Their pinecones looked like big fun balls he’d like to play with. Suddenly he saw that the gate was open.
Arthur began to crawl down the steps, across the yard and out into the big big snowy forest in search of one of these interesting brown balls. After a while he got tired and decided to go back to the porch. But he couldn’ t remember which way he’d come. Arthur lay down under a tree and cried until he fell asleep.
The leaves began to rustle and a young wolf came out of the forest. The wolf had big green eyes and a thick shiny coat. He sniffed around the sleeping Arthur and then picked him up by the front of his snowsuit, carried him to the gate and set him down.
Bo and his mom were searching for Arthur. When they found him, he was sleeping, propped up against the open gate with the huge tracks of a wolf leading away in the snow. Their mom picked Arthur up, closed the gate and said, you two have to play inside from now on. The forest is just too dangerous for you.
*
One morning when his mom was making breakfast, Arthur heard a strange rumbling sound and looked out the window. He saw an enormous cloud of many colors coming across the sky.
“Mom,” he said to his mother.
“Shh,” said his mom, “Your oats are almost ready.”
Arthur looked out the window again. The cloud was coming closer. It was very bumpy and bursting with colors. “Mom!” he said.
“Two minutes,” said his mother. “Go wash your hands.”
“But Mom!”
She was very busy sprinkling cinnamon on Arthur’s oats.
Arthur could see that the cloud had stopped right above the cabin. He went out on the porch. Just then, the cloud opened up and balls began to rain from it.
It rained golf balls, baseballs, bouncy balls, basketballs, volleyballs, rubber band balls, water polo balls, tennis balls, footballs, tether balls, dodgeballs, balls, balls, balls!
Arthur stood on the porch, watching. The raining balls made so much noise he could hardly hear his mom calling, “Oats are ready!”
As soon as the rain stopped, Arthur went out in the yard to play with all the balls in the world. He waded into the balls and began to roll around in them, laughing and rolling, swimming in the balls.
Soon, he realized that the balls were rolling downhill and taking him with them. Arthur and the balls rolled down the trail until they landed in the creek. They flowed faster down the creek until it joined the river, and Arthur rode down the torrent of balls until they poured into the lake. All day long, Arthur played on the lake with all the balls in the world, and lots of other children.
That evening, when his mother answered the door she was happy to see that it was Arthur. He walked in, tossed a green golf ball to her, and fell to the floor in a deep sleep.
*
Once upon a time, three-year-old Bo lived with his parents and his baby brother, Arthur, in a cabin high on the snowy snowy mountain. It was summer, and Bo was outside playing with all the balls in the world. He played with baseballs, softballs, tennis balls, bouncy balls, water polo balls, golf balls, spaceballs, pound-a-balls, basketballs, footballs, balls balls balls balls balls!
Bo threw a ball up in the air. It bounced high high and came back to Bo. He threw it again. It bounced over the bushes and landed on the grass. Bo threw the ball again and it bounced high high in the air, over the fence and away into the trees of the snowy snowy forest, where Bo was not allowed to go. But Bo wanted his ball. He looked up at the cabin. Nobody was watching.
Bo opened the gate and went out into the forest, which wasn’t snowy in summertime, to look for his ball. He looked along the fence. No ball. He looked under a tree. No ball. He went farther and farther into the woods, but he couldn’t find his ball.
Bo started to be afraid. His parents had said never to go out of the gate and into the forest without one of them. Now his parents were far away, and the forest was all around him. Then he heard a sound. Some kind of animal was moving through the forest.
Suddenly the leaves parted and Bo saw a baby wolf. The baby wolf had Bo’s ball in his mouth. He looked at Bo with his green eyes, dropped the ball, and ran away. Bo grabbed the ball, ran back to the gate and into the yard by the cabin, where he played for the rest of the day with all the balls in the world.
