Page 167 - my-people-abbie-harris-beck

crazy. Why I had never thought about that. Who cares, I thought! Well, he seemed to
think it was some dark, deep secret so I gave it some thought. "UP" in smoke? I guessed.
"No", that's smoke. You can see smoke when the fire is burning. He could tell that I was
a little exasperated, so he told me to simply give it some thought form year to year, "year
to year?" I exclaimed. I wanted the answers now.

He revved his engine and tested his small wings by turning his steering wheel left
and right. The small tail section wiggled up and down. The rocket quivered and shook in
place. Then I began to wonder how he was going to take off. There certainly was no
runway. He would hit every tree in the swamp! "Don't worry, I'll get off the earth," he
read my thoughts again.; Then he yelled over the roar of the engine: "Do you want to
hear the last riddle?" Well, I might as well, I thought. The other two riddles had made me
somewhat curious. Then he quietened the engine, motioned me over with his finger and
said this is the toughest of them all:

"How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"

With the last riddle revealed, he accelerated his engine, waived good-bye and
pulled the canopy over his head. With a hiss and a roar, the rocket lifted nearly straight
up-just like a helicopter! It hesitated a split second just above the tree tops. Then it
darted like a bullet toward the sun. In two seconds it was out of sight. All that remained
were the tracks in the mud where the rocket had crashed in the swamp. For a minute I
thought I had been dreaming. I didn't want to hunt squirrels anymore that day.

When daddy picked me up later that day, I was pretty quiet. He asked me how
was my hunting and said it was all right I guess. He thought I was upset because I didn't
see any squirrels. If only he knew. I would tell him in due time about my experience.
Bob Simmons would tell him about my buying the sheet metal that morning anyway. And
how would I explain the transporter which I guess I would call a scooter? He would say I
had fallen asleep, and it had all been a dream.

Over the years I thought about that Saturday in the woods. I even thought about
the riddles from time to time. I might ask a friend for an answer, but I never told them
where I had heard them. I had begun to think it all might have been a dream, You know
how memory fades. About 50 years later I was thinking about the riddles when the
answer to one of them suddenly came to me! I pass it on to you. Maybe you can use it to
figure out the answer to the other two. Anyway, you know how much wood a
woodchuck can chuck? "About as much dew as a dewdrop could drop if a dewdrop could
drop dew!"

Let me know when you solve the other two. I hope you don't take fifty years!

I love you,

\ Papa George