Kevin Ties Again

By Beatrice Bullen

Kevin sat on the kitchen floor trying to tie his shoelaces.

“Over and under and pull both ends,” he said to himself. Then, he carefully made a “bunny-ear” loop with one lace and wrapped the other lace around it. He tried to find the place to poke the other bunny ear through but it had disappeared.

Kevin felt as though he had too many fingers. “I can’t do it,” he said to Mother who was washing the breakfast dishes. “I’ll never be able to tie my shoelaces.” He yanked off his shoes and threw them angrily on the floor.

“I’m sure you can tie them,” Mother said smiling. “Just try and try again.”

“No, it’s too hard. I’m tired of trying.”

Kevin went to his closet and pulled on his cowboy boots. He put on his T-shirt with a picture of a smiley face on it to make him feel better. Then he went outside and sat on the front porch steps. He was still too upset to play.

As Kevin sat resting his chin on his fist, he saw a little gray spider starting a web in the corner of the porch. The spider swung out from one wall on a tiny silken thread, but the thread didn’t quite reach across to the other wall.

Gathering up its thread, the spider started again. One, two, three, four times the spider missed, dangling from its own thread.

“C’mon, try again!” Kevin coaxed the spider.

At last, the little creature spun out far enough to attach its thread to the opposite wall.

“Good for you,” said Kevin, getting up from the step.

He hopped on one foot to the backyard. Scrunching down on the sidewalk, he looked to see if the birds had eaten the bread crumbs he had put out for them before breakfast.

“Oh, oh—ants!” he said. Ants were carrying off the rest of the bread crumbs. Then Kevin spotted a tiny ant trying to lift a bread crumb twice its size.

Backward and forward the ant staggered, clutching the crumb. And each time it dropped the crumb the ant picked it up again.

“C’mon, Ant, you can do it,” Kevin said.

At last the ant balanced the bread crumb just right and scurried off home with it.

“Good for you,” said Kevin.

Next door he saw his friend, Patty, sitting on her new tricycle. She kept trying to push the pedals, but her feet slipped and the tricycle didn’t move.

Kevin remembered when he learned to ride his tricycle. At first he couldn’t make it go either. But now he played “traffic” every day with his friends. He could pedal as fast as anyone. He could even pedal backwards and around and around in circles.

“Keep trying, Patty,” he called.

Then Kevin thought of something. If he could learn to ride his tricycle, maybe he could learn to tie his shoelaces too.

He thought of the little gray spider trying over and over again to start its web. It didn’t give up, and now it was busy spinning itself a home.

He thought of the tiny ant struggling to carry a heavy bread crumb home to its family. And the ant finally made it! The ants were probably having a dinner of bread crumbs right now.

Kevin went back into the kitchen, sat down, and put on his shoes.

For a long time he fumbled with the laces on his left shoe. But he didn’t give up. At last, two loops stood out like perfect bunny ears on each side of the shoe.

“I did it! I did it!” Kevin shouted to Mother. She turned off the mixer that she was using to whip up a pudding for lunch.

“You did! You tied your shoe!” Mother said excitedly. “I knew that all you had to do was keep trying.”

“I just tied and tied again,” Kevin said with a big smile. And he and Mother both laughed as Kevin began tying his other shoe.

Illustrated by Dick Brown