Building Blocks

By Dorothy Swayne

Jesus said love ev’ryone; Treat them kindly, too (Children’s Songbook, page 61).

Today it was raining, and I had nothing to do. My friend came to play with me. “Let’s build things with blocks,” she said.

I built a brown rocket ship that would fly to the moon. She built a red house with windows and doors that would open.

“My rocket ship can fly up to the moon,” I said. “When it blasts off, it might make a terrible noise that could break your house.”

“Please don’t break my house,” my friend said. “The mother is cooking blueberry pancakes, and all the children love blueberry pancakes. They would never get to eat them.”

“OK,” I said. “I’ll make something else, instead.”

I built a yellow backhoe with a long shovel tail. She built a little yard with trees and a white picket fence around her house.

“My backhoe could plow up a garden in your backyard,” I offered.

“Oh, that would be wonderful,” she said. “Then birds could find more worms for their babies and we could plant flowers and vegetables.”

“All right!” I said. “I’ll build something else too.”

I built a blue robot holding a big purple box. She built a blue school with desks for children to sit at.

“My robot has a big box,” I said. “It has lots of books and paper and pencils in it.”

“Oh, could she teach in my school?” she asked. “The children want to learn to spell cat.”

“I can spell cat,” I said. “C-a-t.”

“I know,” she said. “All the children in my school need to learn to spell like you can, and to read and to count.”

“Good,” I said. “My robot will help teach in your school while I build something else.”

I built a dinosaur with orange eyes and a green nose and a gray tail. She built a pink candy store. It had real black licorice sticks and red lollipops inside.

“My dinosaur is very hungry,” I said. “It’s going to eat up all the candy in your store.”

“Please don’t let it do that,” she said. “Then there would be no lollipops for all the good children.”

“Am I a good children?” I asked.

“You are a very good child,” she said.

I changed my dinosaur into a tiny mouse, then ran to give my friend a giant hug. “May I have one of your lollipops, Grandma?”

And she gave me one.

Illustrated by Pat Hoggan