“What is it, Sassafras?” I crouched down and ruffled my cat’s fluffy fur. He was trying to flip over a heavy, mossy rock with his paws. Something good was definitely under there.
I gently tipped the rock over on its side. Yes! I clapped my hands together. This rock was hiding a treasure. A billion roly-poly bugs!
OK . . . maybe not a billion. But at least twenty.
Sassafras took a step forward. “Meow?”
“No! Don’t eat the bugs! That’s gross.”
My cat loves bugs as much as I do. But we love them for different reasons. I love to play with them. He loves to eat them.
Hmmm. Now I just needed to think of something super amazing to do with the roly-polies. I held one in my hand and its tiny feet tickled as it walked.
Sassafras trotted over to my pile of stuff and pawed at my Thinking Goggles.
“Ooh, good idea,” I said as I put them on my head.
Most scientists wear goggles over their eyes, and I do too when I need to keep my eyes safe. But when I need to think of brilliant ideas, I wear my Thinking Goggles on top of my head. That way they’re closer to my brain.
The roly-poly on my hand walked across a bridge I’d made by touching the tips of my two pointer fingers together.
“I’ve got it! Let’s make a bug circus!”
I bent some thin twigs into hoops for the bugs to crawl through. Then I set up some small, round rocks for them to balance on. Next, I tied some grass on either end of a flat piece of bark to make a swing that I held low to the ground (in case any of my performers fell).
My favorite part was a tightrope I made by balancing a long twig between two flat rocks. One of the biggest roly-polies crawled up to the twig tightrope.
I got down on my elbows in the soft grass to cheer him on. “Come on, little buggy! You can do it!”
Almost . . . almost. No! He tumbled into the grass. And then another one followed. The bigger roly-polies were having too much trouble. Hmmm. I carefully plucked the smallest of the rolypolies from the ground.
“OK, little guy. You might be the smallest, but I think you can do this. Show me what you’ve got!”
I placed the tiny roly-poly on one end of the twig. As he crawled along, I held my breath and didn’t let it out until he was across.
He made it! I jumped up, cheered, and looked around for my mom. Then I remembered she was inside packing. I was so used to her being out here with me.
“Mom is gonna love this. Let’s get her, Sassafras. Come on!”
I glanced over my shoulder just in time to catch Sassafras creeping toward my circus performers.
“No way, kitty. You’re coming with me. I do not trust you out here with my bugs. My new little friends are not snacks!”
Sassafras gave me a stinky look, but he gave in and followed me. As we got close to the house, I spotted my mom in the window. But she wasn’t looking at us. She was looking at our old barn. And holding a photo.