“Did you see the acrobats on TV yesterday?” said Billy.
“Yes, I liked them very much, especially when they all stood on each other’s shoulders,” said Paul.
“Well, I don’t think that is very difficult,” said Billy. “I can do that.”
“Of course you can’t,” said Paul. “It’s very difficult.”
“We shall see,” said Billy, and the two boys went into the garden.
But Paul was right. Billy could not even get on his shoulders. Then he decided to climb the apple tree and lower himself onto Paul’s shoulders. But he could not do that. He fell down on his father’s finest tulips and broke four of them.
Paul decided to help his friend. “Haven’t you got some tulips in those artificial flowers in your room?” he said. “Let us cut off the broken tulips and put artificial ones in their place.”
Some time later, Billy’s father looked out of the window. “Most tulips are still buds, but four have already bloomed,” he said. Then he went outside to look at the flowers.
A moment later, he came back to look for Billy, but he couldn’t find his son. Billy was trying another trick he had seen on TV. In this trick, a girl got into a chest and vanished into thin air.
“I hope this trick works better than the last one,” he thought while he was in the chest.
But it did not work. Billy was still in the chest when his father opened it and asked him about the tulips that bloomed so quickly.
