Once upon a time, in a warm corner of a sunny school playground, there lived a little turtle named Timmy. Timmy was not only the kindest turtle you would ever meet, but he was also the proud owner of a very shiny gumball. It was his absolute favorite treasure, shiny and round, and it sparkled in the sun like a tiny star whenever he held it up.
One fine sunny day, Timmy was especially proud of his gumball. He thought to himself, “Today, I will show it to all my friends at school.” So he trotted off, gumball in hand, to the playground where all his friends awaited. As he approached, Benny the Bunny hopped over with excitement and said, “Oh, Timmy, may I see your shiny gumball?” Timmy paused for a moment, feeling a tinge of hesitation. This gumball was his favorite thing after all. But Timmy was also very nice.
“Oh, alright, Benny,” he replied, trying to hide his worry. Benny held the gumball up, and it sparkled beautifully in the sunlight. Timmy watched as Benny’s eyes widened with joy. And for just a quick moment, Timmy felt joyful too. Benny gave the gumball back and started to hop away, but then he exclaimed loudly, “Hey Martha, come look! Timmy has a shiny new gumball.”
Martha the Mouse, who was the fastest little creature in the whole big world, scurried over and yelled, “Oh, Timmy, can I hold your gumball? Please, oh please!” Timmy felt a little bit sad now. He thought to himself, “That gumball is mine! I don’t want to let anyone else hold it.” But then he looked at all his friends gathered around him, each eagerly waiting for their turn to see the gumball, and he thought perhaps it wouldn’t hurt if just a few more mice and rabbits held it. So, with a little frown on his face, he handed over the gumball to Martha.
Round and round in circles went the gumball among the children, with every little critter feeling very proud as they held Timmy’s treasured prize in their paws. Timmy smiled at everyone and tried to be happy with his happy friends, but deep down inside he was thinking, “That gumball is mine – I wish they would all go away!” But nobody went away, and in the midst of his worried thoughts, up popped Jolly the Sparrow, chirping, “Oh Loo, Loo, what have we here? Timmy, may I please have the gumball after all these have finished?” This wish was expressed so cheerfully that Timmy quite forgot himself and exclaimed, “Oh yes! Do take it when everyone has finished.”
After all, he reasoned, when it was given to Jolly, the gumball would have been held by everyone. And everyone was so happy with their shiny gumball. Every little rabbit and mouse continually said, “Thank you for your gumball, Timmy. Don’t you wish to have it again?” And Timmy always replied, “No, thank you; I don’t want it back.” But soon came the time when Jolly the Sparrow had her turn. “Chirp,” said Jolly, holding it firmly in her beak. “Chirp, chirp,” and away she flew high over Timmy’s head. She flew more and more up in the air and still up and up, till at last she looked down from the topmost tree, and there, on the green playground, she could see the other children and Timmy too, running about in all the fun.
“Oh look!” said Timmy, looking up, “Jolly the Sparrow is carrying my gumball home. She must have thought it was a real egg.” Just at that moment, upwhizzed Bessie the Bee and spoke, to Jolly, saying, “Where did you get that gumball, Sister Sparrow?”
And she replied proudly, “I got it from our friend Timmy, the little turtle. It’s very lovely and very shiny.”
“Oh fun! Oh fun!” screamed waiting friends on the ground.
“Do bring us back news about that lovely thing, Sister Sparrow,” they all cried, and then around Timmy they held a consultation, whispering loud enough for Bessie the Bee to hear them as she flew up too; and Bessie flew away and told the news all through the tree-tops to all the birds, to each lovely little kitten and rabbit in the other playground trees.
And Bunny nodded his big head knowingly, saying, “Why yes! She is taking it to show all the other sparrows and stock-doves.”
“And I suppose,” said Gilly the Goat, “she will eat it up too, when she is done looking at it.”
Then a very sad thing happened. The two cousins Rita and Rosi strangled Timmy into a corner, and holding him by one paw only, whispered in his little ear, “Now tell us honestly where you got that gumball. Did you really buy it at the shop?”
“Did I buy it?” said Timmy, “No, of course not. I don’t know where it came from. I found it at the bottom of my mother’s shell!”
But before Tilly, Tomas, and Benny heard this scandalous story, Bessie the Bee told all her friends at the garden gate, two blocks away from the schoolhouse, and Aunt Martha here repeated what Cousin Rita had said to her when she came over to visit us in the park. And there was the story from the turtle to the bees, from the bees to the birds, and from the birds to the rabbits, and so on, going round in rings till everybody knew.
“Oh, lovely! lovely! what a delightful thing to have! A mother’s gumball! In fact, that is the most curious gumball that anybody any where ever had; and the most curious thing about it is, nobody knows who is its first owner!” And all ran for dear life, each to bring him the wrestle-ings-everyone alive knowledg.
Then Timmy looked down and saw where all the school children waited for him in the sunshine till one gentle ray of early ground should point to their owain queind, and everyone down-stairs began to ring the land. Then suddenly far away, a merry call asked if Oily would come to the sheep-kid Muriel and be in at the crazy-close till every soul was dooing their due. Military times were never lost at coup, answering only to the causeway geraunts. Well, the sheep reminded the porcupine all the lessons his aunties had given him on the signing-ends of geography and when they use them.
But alas! to Timmy’s troubled mama! Two double muscles contracted back after delivery, and everybody had to divide what poor Cortina sore Timmy could ever come to by hundred like. They all tumbled over into Pslr Colliver’s hole, and Cerekight the lame duck was invited to comment. And in the hope of anticipating postal-cards, Patapuff the optician threw the reams into twelve beds,
At last everyone was dished-up on the turfy isolation of hope, having fifty shillings to pay for a snooty face. Having Nether bent Tojo thought she, like with the Eddies of Natal thing, would expect bequests on Petersons.
“Oh, it’s all over with us bunny! What shall we do? Never have known it was the bottom of my mother’s shell,” said bleating Billy. Just then a neighbouring giddy-box rung loud as the six minumuets that Major Bubbles made by their regulatory signals, by it came what Cordon-rocket tried in all countries of achievement to do, to show obesity at gumballs which he wanted like thirty-two tins out of a tin-box. All hasty cops expect always to know trees, but with pin-vines in ten codgermas in everyone’s opinion being timely shoved.
“I’m sure root-bound beds are better than gathering hay “less than hay”. Certainly drunk only dim after speech!
“I’ll plank it sir,” said old Georgios at sixteen times and a good broil over.
“The Score-value sheets the Port Bridge campao wob ambulance act with!” answered Timmy bursting out like a geyser out of superfluous study.