Time Story
Mrs. Ruddleford was a very nice old lady. She lived on a big house on a hill, where she liked to give lovely tea parties. There was nothing particualy unusual about Mrs. Ruddleford, except one thing, that she had never told anyone about. It was something that she owned, something very special. Mrs. Ruddleford owned Time. Mrs. Ruddleford couldn't really remember where she had gotten Time. She thought she might have bought it in a shop somewhere, but she wasn't sure. Her memory wasn't as good as it had been. Mrs. Ruddleford had owned Time for a very long while. She had never told anybody about it. She kept Time in the attic so that people wouldn't see it and ask about it when they came to her tea parties. Mrs. Ruddleford couldn't control Time just because she owned it. Everything happened for her in exactly the same order it happened to everybody else. Mrs. Ruddleford just left Time by itself up in the attic, and didn't bother with it much. She thought it must be awfully hard work, keeping everything that ever happened in it's proper order. Mrs. Ruddleford was very proud of owning Time.
One day, Mrs. Ruddleford decided that she had owned Time long enough. She wasn't very young anymore, and she thought it might be nice to let someone else take care of Time. She knew it was very important who she picked to give it to. If Time wasn't properly taken care of, everything would get out of order. But she couldn't pick anyone to give Time to. Nobody seemed good enough. Mrs. Ruddleford loved Time, and she wanted it to go somewhere very nice. Finally, Mrs. Ruddleford decided not to give Time to anybody. She just went up to the attic and opened a window. She let Time drift out, and oat away from her over the trees. Mrs. Ruddleford smiled. "Maybe somebody will find Time", she thought, "maybe somebody will find it and take very good care of it. That would be nice." Mrs. Ruddleford closed the window.
the end
- Linnea Feldman Emison
