Patty’s Purple Pocket Pants

By Diana Logue

God loveth a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7).

Patty was wearing her favorite pants. She called them her purple pocket pants. She liked them because they were bright purple, her favorite color. But best of all, they had lots of pockets: one on the left front, one on the right front, one on the left back, and one on the right back—four pockets in all!

Patty didn’t go to first grade that day because it was Saturday. She skipped out the back door and across the lawn to where Daddy was measuring the yard for a new fence. “Please run in the house and get me a piece of paper,” he said. He fingered the pencil he had tucked over his ear. “I need to write down some numbers.”

Patty reached into her left front pocket. “Here, Daddy.” She held out a crumpled paper with red, blue, and orange crayon lines scrawled on it. “It was in my pocket. You can have it!”

“Thank you, Patty.”

Patty hopped on one foot and then the other. She hopped through the side yard and around to the front of the house.

Her little sister, Alice, was sitting on the porch, coloring in a coloring book. But a breeze kept blowing the pages. Alice’s face was all wrinkled as if she were about to cry.

“It’s OK, Alice,” Patty told her as she slid her hand into her right front pocket. She pulled out a smooth brown rock and plunked it down on Alice’s coloring book. “That will hold your pages still.”

Alice beamed.

Patty did somersaults across the lawn until she landed near the sidewalk. Her big brother, Jason, was playing there with his toy cars and trucks. He looked angry.

“What’s the matter?” asked Patty.

“I can’t get my tow truck to really pull my cars,” he said.

Patty jumped up and down. “I can help you!” She shoved her hand into her left back pocket and pulled out a string. “Tie them together with this.”

“Thanks!” said Jason. In no time at all, he had tied his red racing car to the back of his tow truck.

Patty ran across the grass, up the steps, and into the house. Sam, the cat, pounced on one of her shoelaces.

“Oh, Sam,” she giggled, tying her shoe again, “if you want to play games, I have something for you.” Reaching into her right back pocket, she pulled out a small, blue rubber ball. She bounced it across the room. Sam was after it in a flash.

Patty sank onto a chair and sighed. What a good day this was! She had helped Daddy, Alice, Jason, and Sam.

Mommy came into the room with her purse on her arm. “I’m on my way to the grocery store. Do you have anything in your purple pocket pants for me?” she asked with a smile.

Patty reached into her left front pocket, but the pocket was empty. Next she tried her right front pocket, but it was empty too. Then she checked her left back pocket, but there was nothing in it, either. Slowly, she shoved her hand into her right back pocket and felt all around inside. She felt all the way to the bottom. There was nothing there. She looked up at Mommy. “I have something special in my pocket for you.”

Patty pulled her empty hand out of the pocket and held it out to Mommy. “We can hold hands and walk to the store together!”

And that’s just what they did!

Illustrated by Susan Meeks Curtis