The dizzy ant

Once, a family of ants lived near a child’s sandpit.  Like most children, the ants loved exploring, but always listened to their mother when she told them to be careful or to come home. 

However, there was one exception – the youngest, whose name was Crawford.  It did not matter how often he was scolded or spanked, he would insist on going off on adventures of his own.

One day, he climbed over the wall of the sandpit and saw an enormous tube with a transparent cap at one end and a hole at the other end.  The tube was very gayly coloured in blue, yellow and red stripes.  Along one side in big letters, was written the word ‘KALEIDESCOPE”.

He had never seen anything like it before.  Crawford, however, could not resist the temptation and, ignoring his mother’s warnings, he climbed into the hole at the end.  Carefully he crawled along the wall of the tunnel.  He walked for some time until he came to a big plastic disc.  Walking all the way around it, he found a tiny little hole and slipped through.  He was now in a room filled with coloured pieces of glass and plastic.  On the wall there was a big mirror.  Crawford could not understand what all these things were doing in here.

Suddenly, the kaleidoscope began to move, and the plastic and glass began changing positions.  The little boy who owned the kaleidoscope, had decided to play with it.

Crawford was terrified.  The sun glared at him and was reflected off the mirror, straight back into his eyes.  By now the tube was turning very fast and he tried hard to avoid the flying chips.  This was not easy because the tube was turning faster and faster.  He was quite dizzy.  He so wished he had listened to his mother.  Luckily for Crawford, it was now lunchtime and Billy had to go into the house for lunch.  He put his toy down in the sandpit.

Crawford by now was so dizzy and frightened that he could not move.  Gradually he felt better and crawled slowly to his feet and began to look for the little hole in the room through which he had come.  The mirror confused him.  He began to panic, and it took him quite a while to find it.  EVENTUALLY he managed to crawl through, although he was very tired and even more scared, and ran as fast as his little legs could carry him to the eye hole and jumped out.

Crawford’s mother was worried and anxious. The little ant never missed lunch before and the whole family went out to look for him.  They had almost given up hope when Father ant suggested looking in the sandpit.  The family arrived just as poor little Crawford stumbled out of the hole at the end of the tube.

They were so pleased to see him that they all shouted “hurray” and mother did not even scold him.  Carefully they carried him home and tucked him into bed with a hot water bottle.

Barbara Louise Gillman