CHAPTER 1
Once there was a little girl named Kirsten. She was four years old and she had an older brother named Matty, who was seven. They loved to play in their backyard, which had swings, a sandbox and a lovely flower garden with purple lilac bushes growing along a fence. There was also a very tall weeping willow tree that they loved to sit under.
Birds of all kinds sang their different songs from the nearby oak and maple trees.
Cute bunny rabbits hopped about the lawn and many pretty butterflies floated through the air.
On this particular day the children played while their parents packed the car for a trip to the country to see their sick grandmother. Kirsten was wearing a pretty yellow organdy pinafore dress with wing-like shoulders. She looked at her dress, then looked at the fluttery yellow butterflies and thought perhaps she was supposed to be a butterfly too. She flapped her arms, jumped up, and twirled around trying desperately to stay in the air, but each time she came down with a thud and so decided she wasn't meant to be a butterfly after all. She asked Matty, "What makes them fly and why can't I?" Matty said that Mother told him:
Gravity
A force called gravity keeps us on the ground
Otherwise we'd all be flying around
And apples would fall up instead of down
If it weren't for gravity we wouldn't weigh a pound
(Some ladies would really like that I've found)
And you're not made like a butterfly
With fast fluttering wings to move you up high
Kirsten was disappointed but turned her attention to the flowers in the garden, which she loved. She had asked her mother all about them.
Flowers
Mother can you tell me
Why are the flowers here?
Oh, yes they are so pretty
Just like you my dear
They are gifts from heaven
Pollinated by birds and bees
I think that they were sent
Just for us to please
In this garden are snaps and roses
Along with phlox and sweet peas
See the daffodils and iris
And tulips, lilies, and peonies
What makes them grow up mother?
Tall and pretty and strong?
Sunshine, rain and fertilizer
Help to bring them along
And what happens to them in winter?
Do they die and disappear?
No, many stay in the ground down under
Then they bloom again next year.
Kirsten noticed that the grass was all wet but that it hadn't rained. Matty explained that the grass was covered with dew because it was still early morning.
He said, as he was digging up the earth:
Dew
At night when you are sleeping
And all the stars are keeping
Safe watch down over you
The grass grows heavy, full of dew
The water in the air forms droplets
Which condense to form a toplet
Like a cover on the ground
Later on it is not found
For when the sun warms up the air
Dewdrops evaporate and disappear.
Matty kept on digging in the ground because he was told: "If you dig straight down, you can find China."
A gentle breeze made the long willows sway easily on the tree above them. Matty said: "The breeze comes from":
Wind
Air always moves around the world
Some is warm and some is cold
Warm air rises up from the equator
Cold flows below from the region polar
The moving air that we call wind
Has different velocities that on temperature depend
And that's just about all I know
About the wind and breezes that blow.
