Johnny's ball was extra bouncy. It bounced and bounced and bounced right up into the air. It bounced into the trees. It bounced on the roof. It was big and bright and orange. And when it seemed to lose its bounce just a little, Daddy pumped it up again with a bicycle pump. He pumped and pumped and pumped.
"There," said Daddy. "Now it will bounce right over the chimney tops."
"Will it really?" asked Johnny.
And that's what happened. Johnny bounced it hard and away went the big orange ball, right over the chimney tops. It was the biggest bounce of all—but it never came back again. Johnny was very sad about his orange ball. He told Old Toddy, the gardener, all about it.
"Never mind," said Toddy. "If you wake up very, very early one morning and look out of your window, you might see your extra bouncy ball again."
Johnny woke up early the next morning. "I didn't see the ball," he said to Toddy.
"You didn't wake up early enough," said Toddy.
So Johnny tried again and again. At last he woke up before it was really and truly light. And there was his big orange ball sitting right on top of the roofs of the houses on the very edge of the world. Toddy was right. Johnny gazed at his ball and watched it as it slowly went up, up, up into the sky. Up, up, up it went. Johnny quickly dressed and ran out into the garden. But when he got there, he couldn't see his big orange ball any- where. There was only the sun behind the clouds.
"It really must be an extra bouncy ball," said Toddy when Johnny told him all about it. "I mean, to go right up into the sky and out of sight—like an airplane."
"Will it ever come down again?" asked Johnny.
"Yes," said Toddy. "But extra high bounces take extra long time to come down again, haven't you noticed that?"
"Yes," said Johnny. "I have."
"Well then, I should think it might take a whole day to bounce down again," said Toddy. "It might come down after you've gone to bed."
So Johnny waited until his mother had said good night. Toddy had said: 'It's no use looking out of your bedroom window. It will come down on the other side of the house.' So Johnny ran to his mother's bedroom and peeped out of the window. There was the big orange ball coming down, down, down slowly until it touched the roofs of the houses on the edge of the world. Then it slowly disappeared.
In the morning he told Toddy that he thought the ball had gone forever. "No," said Toddy." I expect that ball is still bouncing and bouncing."
"You must not stop looking for it because the bounces get smaller and smaller. And soon the ball lies perfectly still."
But Johnny didn't have to wait long. He turned round, and there in the long grass was his bright orange ball.
"It can't have been here all the time," he said.
"No," said Toddy. "I know it wasn't there yesterday because I was busy gardening just there."
Do you think it was Johnny's ball which he saw on the edge of the world? I think it was the sun. On one side of the house it was rising in the early morning, and on the other side of the house it was going down again—just like a big bouncing ball.
What do you think?
0 Comments