A Boy Who Finds Things

by Myrtle G. Harris

1 Tomorrow would be Father’s Day, and Jimmy, Henry, and Bob were busy making cards for Dad. Jimmy was trying to think of something special he could do for Dad.

“How do you like my card?” Henry asked as he held up a piece of paper with a picture of a boy and a lawn mower drawn on the outside. On the inside Henry had printed:

Happy Father’s Day!
I will mow the lawn.
Love, Henry

2 “I like it,” Jimmy said. He wished he were as old as Henry so he could draw nice pictures and use the lawn mower.

“Look at my card!” cried Bob. His card had a picture of a shiny car pasted on the outside. Inside he had printed:

Happy Father’s Day!
I will wash and shine the car.
Love, Bob

3 “That’s nice,” Jimmy said. Bob was ten, and he was big enough to do lots of things.

Jimmy used a yellow crayon to color a sun in the blue sky on the outside of his card. “I wish I could think of something to do for Dad too,” he said as he bent over his card.

4 “Maybe you could bring in the paper every afternoon,” Henry said.

“I do that all the time anyway,” Jimmy replied. “I want to do something special.”

5 “You could try to find the nozzle for the water hose,” Henry suggested. “When Dad was washing the car this morning, he couldn’t find it.”

6 Henry and Bob picked up their cards and crayons and left Jimmy all alone.

Jimmy tucked his card inside his shirt pocket and put away his crayons. Then he began to try to find the lost nozzle for Dad.

7 He went out to the garage and looked on all the shelves, in the corners, and even inside Mother’s watering can. He looked inside Dad’s tool box and behind his own toy box. But he couldn’t find the nozzle anywhere.

8 Jimmy looked again at his toy box. Maybe I should straighten it up a bit, he thought. So he carefully took all of his toys out of the box and put them on the floor. Then one by one he replaced them—all except an old pair of cowboy boots with the toes worn out. As he picked the boots up, something fell on the floor with a clatter.

What a surprise! There on the floor lay the lost nozzle.

9 The next morning Henry and Bob gave Dad their Father’s Day cards, and Dad was very happy.

Then Jimmy handed Dad the hose nozzle and his card. On the inside of the card, Henry had helped him write:

I will help find things!
Love, Jimmy

10 Dad laughed and put his arm around Jimmy’s shoulders. “I have one boy to help me keep the lawn mowed,” he said. “I have another boy to help me keep the car shined. And I also have a boy who finds things for me. This is a happy Father’s Day.”

Jimmy was happy too. Finding things is a very special kind of gift, he decided.

Drawings by Helen and Robert Fitzgerald, ages 5 and 7, Las Vegas, Nevada