A Scanty Treasure

The old toy store, a place where Barry loved to play. The metal and wood toys were so much better than the easy to break modern ones. The smell of the wood made the boy feel cozy. The xylophones sang, and lettered blocks scattered the walkways. Wooden cars would race down paths as peart spectators cheered them on. He had persuaded dad to buy a wooden truck. When they checked out, he went over to the marble buckets. He thought they were there because they were free. He grabbed some of the smooth balls and added them to several pockets.

After he and dad left, the marbles fell out after a turn of the car. Dad had to repark and take them back to the owner of the store. The owner just laughed and told them to keep the marbles. The owner also gave the boy a red balloon. “Just the same as Pooh Bear!” He elated.

“The book says the balloon was blue so the bear could blend among the sky to steal honey from bees,” the boy remarked.

“That makes a whole lot more sense! Then a blue one for you too,” he pulled out a blue balloon and also gave that one, “you have shown me what has to be done.” The owner went to the back of the store and got some paper. He wrote twenty seven cents on the papers and taped them to the marble buckets.

“A touch more than a whole four dollars here!” He rattled the marbles.

"Yes boy, you can have good fun there!"

"Fun? They are not just baubles to stare at?"

"No, you set them down and use your thumb and a larger marble to smack the others," the owner gave the boy a larger marble that was called a shooter.

"Cool!" the boy was joyous to leave and try the new game.

Later that day, the boy was taken to church. He wanted to show some peers the marble game. They played and enjoyed the game so much that the boy gave them some marbles for them to have. "They are a quarter each at the store," he told them. When the offer plate was passed and the boys were told to put what they could there, they all concluded to add a marble.

"Now boys," the church lesson teacher turned to them when she found the marbles, "we meant any change you have, not a marble."

"The marble has worth! A whole quarter!" they told her, "Even better than the few one cents some of the others have added to the offer plate."

"Well..." she paused, "Yes, true but.." another delay, "Should have been more clear about what to add to the plate." She gave them back the marbles and shook her head. The boys laughed at the cute ploy and then snuck off to teach the teacher a lesson about the marbles. The teacher’s classroom was soon completely covered by the marbles as the boys had become master sneaks. When the teacher headed back to the classroom, she knocked marbles everywhere and went to scold the boys more.

"Boys, to leave the marbles everywhere! So dangerous to set a trap for me to fall! These may no longer be by your hands!" She walked away, the sack of marbles went along by her and the boys were upset when the parents came to get them.

"Why are you so sad?" the boy's father asked.

"The teacher took all of the marbles and oh they were such fun! There they rolled, the best offer for the plate," the boy responded.

"Offer plate? Why would the teacher ask for money anyways?" he was shocked. The boy shrugged and the parents headed to the room that the teacher was. "Madame, why would you ask our boys to add to the offer plate?"

The teacher spun around as the marbles clacked. "They also have to supply to the lord what they can."

"No, they are boys that do not have jobs. How daft! Also to steal the marbles they so love?" he held out a hand to gather back the marbles.

"No, they left them on the floor," she stomped.

"Where else do marbles belong?" he wondered.

"Oh please, they are just small balls. There should not be a problem," she slammed the bag of marbles on top of a desk.

"They are worth a good much to these boys, therefore what matters. We shall take them back before you break them," he made a grab for the marbles and walked away and the boys cheered and were grateful to have back the smooth toys. "To share toys among one another and be good buds. That should be the only offer they should need to supply," the dad passed the marbles back out and they all made a pact to make a group that met at the toy store from now on.

The owner loved to be a place to meet for the boys to laugh and play, as they shared and donated old toys they no longer used. They made up new marble games and helped to sell many of them out of the buckets of the small store. There were puppet shows of a bunny and a bear who tossed marbles at one another. A rowdy snowball battle! There were marble board games and games of who could stand to roll on just marbles for the longest amount of seconds where a shoe does not land on the floor. There was a go seek for the marbles by corners and under toys, the marbles and games helped the boys to stay buds forever.

As days went on, the boys would always set out to place marbles for one another or order neat ones that held a dog or sea creature. They wondered how someone crafted such a small shape there. They would always share and help one another from those lessons that came from the toy store where an object that seemed scanty, was actually a treasure they could keep.