John and Theodore both replied with a nod of their heads and set off to help build the school's new playground. The old playground was full of dirt and run down jungle gyms, slides, and other outdated pieces of equipment.
After about an hour, John could not help but notice that all the other kids were getting to play and enjoy the sunny day, albeit on the old playground, while he and Theodore toiled away. As they worked on the construction of the jungle gym John came up with what he thought was a brilliant plan.
"Did you hear that, Theodore? Mrs. Booth is calling me to assist her in the classroom," explained John.
Theodore had heard nothing but thought it was plausible as he had been solely focused on his work and had a tendency to space out from time to time.
"Run along then but please come back as soon as you can. There is enough work here for the entire class and only we were chosen," explained Theodore.
With that, John ran towards the classroom but snuck back outside to the old playground and played with the others until he had his fill of fun. When he returned to Theodore and the construction of the playground he could see that the jungle gym had been completed.
"Wow! It looks great," John thought to himself, "And it took me almost no work."
"What did Mrs. Booth have you do in there? It sure took you a long time," inquired Theodore.
"She made me rearrange the library and put the books back in the correct spots. Let's work on this slide," explained John.
As they worked and worked for some time, John once again grew jealous of the kids playing basketball and despised the hot work he and Theodore were selected to do.
"Theodore, do you hear that? It's Mr. Johnson calling me. I will be back in no time. Keep up the good work," yelled John as he scurried off towards the basketball court.
When he returned to the work and Theodore some time later he saw that there was no more work to be done. Theodore had completed the playground while he had been enjoying the game of basketball.
"Alright! Let's start playing!" exclaimed John to Theodore.
"NOT SO FAST!" a voice boomed behind them.
There was only once voice that could belong to and they were both well aware of who it was: Mr. Thompson.
The large man was walking quickly towards the two and looked to have woken up on the wrong side of the bed that morning.
"Theodore, run and play on the new playground you worked hard on. John, we need to have a talk," he said when he reached the group.
"John, I have been keeping an eye on you two all afternoon and you have tried to trick Theodore over and over to do all your work. What do you think your punishment should be?"
As John looked down at his feet he managed to squeak out a simple, "No punishment?"
Mr. Thompson gave a hearty laugh as he grabbed the young man by his shoulders and escorted him to the principal's office.
Theodore loved the new playground and enjoyed it even more than the others since he had been the one to build it. As for John, he was banished from the new playground for a whole week. So as the others romped and played on the new toys, John was forced to sit and watch from the middle of the old playground.
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| The playground Theodore built (Pixabay). |
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Author's Note: This story was adapted from The Rabbit and The Antelope found in Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898). In the original story the rabbit and the antelope get together to dig a water well so they can quench their thirst when need be in the hot days of summer. They keep a stash of food so that they can eat it when they have finished their work. The rabbit makes up a story that his wife is about to give birth and that he must run back to name their kids. When he is tired of working the rabbit acts as if he is being called and eats a little of their food and comes back. He does this until he has done essentially no work and the antelope has completed the well. The antelope figures out what the rabbit has done and forbids him to drink out of the well. The rabbit does so sneakily until the antelope sets up a trap, ultimately catching the rabbit and killing him.
For this story, I changed characters and what the characters were building. I thought that having two kids build a new playground was a good change in the story because I thought it would be easily relatable to have a kid who doesn't want to work but play. I added in the principal giving out the discipline because in reality I didn't think one kid would take another one banishing him from the playground to well.
I really enjoyed your version of the story. I think it worked out well that you had the characters be children. That type of behavior is common in kids. They would rather play than work so it would be likely that a child would try to get out of working. Your story was easy to read and I was able to follow along easily. Good job.
ReplyDeleteEasy, fun read. Plus, I like the theme of this story! I think hard work is an important value to maintain in our culture. Plus, your spin of putting it on a playground I though was extremely relatable and a little more lighthearted than a lot of folklore stories! Excellent job on the playground setting, too- it was so believable!
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