The skeleton’s tale

The skeleton

The skeleton was rowing on the lake. He was the happiest skeleton in the playroom. He always had a huge grin on his face because he enjoyed taking the lego people across the water every day to visit someone, or to do their shopping, or to play in the sand with their friends.

Natalie and Kaylee were organising a picnic on the shore today. It was a hot afternoon.

“This lady is the first to arrive with her children,” said Kaylee, putting a kind lego mummy into the skeleton’s boat and placing her two children with her.

The skeleton stuck his oar in the water and started rowing hard. He was very proud of his oar. It was a huge weapon that he’d stolen from the ogre.

So he used his oar to row across the lake and came back for some more people. Natalie had a queue of lego men and women and children lined up on the shore. But soon they were all ferried across to the sandy beach, and the skeleton sat down on the seat in his boat to watch and wait until it was time to ferry them all home again.

Natalie had brought some other people over as well. These people were not like the lego people. They all wore clothes, like Natalie and Kaylee did.

The skeleton sighed. “It would be so nice to have clothes. No one even notices that my bones get cold in the wind. They just expect me to row and row and––”

The boat rocked as a bird landed beside him. It was Baby Owl.

“Sorry,” said Baby Owl. “I’m just practising flying long distances and I got tired. I’m glad your boat was here.”

The skeleton felt cross. This was all he needed. A silly baby owl landing on his nice clean boat and probably making it all messy. “I thought owls slept in the daytime,” he said. “That’s probably why you’re tired.”

“I’ve nowhere to sleep now they’ve chopped our tree down,” Baby Owl said. “Look round. Can you see any trees?”

The skeleton looked all round the lake. “No,” he said. “There are no trees. So what will you do?”

Baby Owl’s feathers drooped and his wings sagged. “I’ll have to ask someone to share their home with me… Maybe you would?” he said, looking up.

The skeleton was horrified. He felt the huge grin fade from his face. “There isn’t much room in this boat,” he began.

But Baby Owl interrupted him excitedly. “I could sleep near your feet and my feathers would keep them warm.”

The skeleton looked down. He had no shoes, no socks and no trousers or pyjamas. Would feathers feel like having clothes? Perhaps they would keep him as warm as socks.

“That’s a very good idea,” he said finally. “You are the kindest baby owl I have ever met.”

Baby Owl nodded his head but said nothing.

The skeleton suddenly jumped up. “I have to go ferry the lego people back from the beach. Will you come with me?”

Baby Owl saw Kaylee and Natalie coming over. He quickly agreed, and the two of them had a brilliant time with all the lego families as the skeleton ferried them home from their day on the sand. And then the skeleton and Baby Owl settled themselves cosily in the boat and fell fast asleep.

The moral of the Tale is that being kind to someone helps both people to feel better.