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Once upon a time when a boy named Chase was out riding his bicycle, he found a little plastic sword lying on the ground next to the road. No one was around. Chase stopped, got off his bike, and picked up the sword. It certainly didn't look like much. It was just a grey, plastic sword, the kind you can buy for two dollars. Or if you're lucky, on clearance for fifty cents. He did notice one thing about this little sword: hanging from the end of the handle was a golden cord that formed a loop big enough for a boy Chase's size to slip his hand through. Chase put his hand through the loop, held the sword by its handle, and waved it around in the air. Just then a fat worm came crawling by. Chase walked over and pointed at it with the sword. "My name is Enigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die," he said, pretending to be the famous swordsman from The Princess Bride. He lifted the sword over his head and brought it down on the worm, intending to cut it in two. To his surprise, the sword bounced up, and the worm, still all in one piece, crawled on. "What a lousy sword," Chase said. "It won't even kill a worm. "Right next to him there was a large, fuzzy dandelion. Chase assumed a fighting stance and aimed the sword at it. "En garde," he said and gave it a slash. But he didn't knock it over. As it had with the worm, the sword bounced off, leaving the dandelion unhurt. Not even a single tiny parachute floated off it. "Boy, this IS a lousy sword," he said and walked over to a big rock. He raised the sword and, as hard as he could, smashed it against the rock. The little sword, instead of breaking to pieces, sliced right through the rock! It cut the rock into two neat pieces that fell apart like halves of an apple. Chase stood blinking at the rock. He hit one of the halves. The sword sliced right through it. "Wow," he said. He swung the sword against the trunk of a small elm tree expecting the tree to fall over, but the sword bounced off. There was not even a mark on the tree. "I guess this sword just cuts rocks," he said. He tapped the blade against the handlebars of his bicycle. The handlebars fell off. "Oops. I guess it cuts bicycles, too. " Chase stood looking at his ruined bike. Then he looked at the tree. He looked at the dandelion. And he looked at the rock. Something was tickling his brain. He looked at the rock and at the dandelion. He looked at the tree and at the bicycle. He thought about the fat little worm. "Wait a minute," he said. "This sword won't cut anything that's alive; only things that are not alive. " At that moment, as if to test the theory, a Monarch butterfly landed on the ground right in front of him. "Don't worry little butterfly," he said. "This won't hurt. " He chopped at it with the sword. Sure enough, the sword bounced off and the butterfly flew away. Chase looked about for something not alive to try the sword on. He saw a large metal fence made of steel bars. The bars stood side by side just far apart to peep between. He hit the sword lightly against one of the bars and it cut through that one and two more. "This is a great sword!" Chase said and pulled his hand from the golden loop that hung from the bottom of the handle. Suddenly there was a clanking sound. It was made by the metal bars of the fence as the parts that were cut clamped back together. Next, like a movie running backwards, the handlebars to his bicycle sprang up and stuck back on where they belonged. And finally, with a sound a little like a thunder clap, the pieces of the rock sat up and snapped back together. Chase didn't notice it, but as each thing that had been cut by the sword came together the golden loop on the handle of the sword became a little smaller. Chase put his hand back through the loop. It had been loose before. Now it was just big enough for his hand to fit through comfortably. He walked over to the big rock and sliced it in two. Then he sliced each of the halves. Then he sliced those pieces. He kept cutting the rock smaller and smaller until all that was left was a pile of tiny rocks. He kicked these with his shoe, scattering them all around. He walked over by his bicycle to make sure he was out of the way, then slipped his hand out of the golden loop. There was a sound like marbles banging together as all the little rocks sprang up and whirled about trying to find their proper places. For a second they looked like a swarm of angry bees, and then SNAP! the rock was back together again. And the golden loop got a little smaller. "Wait till Mom sees this!" he said. He started to get on his bicycle, but the ground began to shake. It shook and then stopped. And shook and then stopped. Shake. Shake. Shake. Shake it went. And each shake got a little louder. Chase looked up and saw a giant - a really huge giant - walking toward him. The giant stopped and looked down at Chase. "Who are you?" Chase shouted up at him. "I'm Grumfrop the Terrible," the giant said. "What do you want?" Chase called. The giant laughed. "I want what I always want," he said. "I want to smash all the houses, and eat all the food, and squash all the people - flat. " "That's terrible!" shouted Chase. "Exactly," said the giant, and laughed again. It was not a very nice laugh. Chase's face got a little red. He took a deep breath. "You are NOT going to do those terrible things!" he shouted. "And who is going to stop me?" the giant asked. Chase stepped out into the middle of the road. "I am," he shouted. "With what?" asked the giant, and he laughed a mean laugh. "With this," Chase said, and he lifted the little sword and pointed it at the giant. Grumfrop leaned over and looked at the sword. "It looks like a little plastic sword," he said. "You can't cut anything with that. " "It is a plastic sword," Chase said. "But it's also a magic sword. If I want it to, it can cut better than the sharpest razor. " "Little Boy," growled the giant, "You are going to be the first one that I squash. " "Wait!" said Chase, and he tried to put his hand through the golden loop, but it was so tight that his hand wouldn't fit. He wiggled his fingers and twisted his hand and tugged at the loop. Finally his hand popped through and he was just able to grasp the handle of the magic sword. "Wait!" Chase called again. "Watch this!" He swung the sword down and dragged it along the street. A huge slice appeared in the concrete. The giant stared at the slice in the road. Chase jumped over the slice, held the sword up over his head, and took a step toward the giant. The giant looked confused; then, after a moment's hesitation, took a step backward. Chase walked over to the big rock he had cut before. "Sorry, rock," he said, and with a couple of quick slashes cut the rock into three pieces. Again he held the sword over his head. This time he took two steps toward the giant. The giant blinked his big eyes and took two steps backward. There was a car parked by the side of the road. It was a very shiny car, blue in color and big enough for a whole family to ride in. It was empty. Chase walked over and with a single stroke of the magic sword cut the car neatly in half. He turned back toward the giant, raised the little plastic sword over his head, and took three steps. The giant, looking quite nervous by this time, took three steps backward. Then a fourth. Then he turned around, and shaking the earth with every step, ran away. Shake. Shake. Shake. Shake. Shake. Pretty soon the shaking disappeared. The giant was gone. Chase waved the sword triumphantly in the air. "Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!" he said. He worked his hand out of the golden loop. First, the blue car popped back together without a single spot of paint out of place. Next, the poor rock picked its three pieces up and, with the same thunder-clap sound as before, clamped itself back into one. Lastly, the big slice in the road closed up. It started at one end and finished at the other like someone working a zipper, then it healed as good as new. But Chase wasn't watching all this. He was watching the little golden loop. As each of the things the sword had cut sprang back, the loop got smaller and smaller. By the time the slice in the road was gone, the loop was so small Chase could barely squeeze three fingers into it. He did manage to squeeze three fingers in and then pulled, trying to stretch the cord back out. There was a small popping sound and the little golden cord broke. "Oh, no!" Chase cried. He tried to tie the cord back together, but it wouldn't stay. A look of sadness came over Chase's face. The sword wasn't magic anymore; it was just a crummy little plastic sword. But then Chase looked up at his town, at all the houses that were not destroyed, and he thought about all the food that wasn't eaten and of all the people who didn't get squashed, and he laughed. He swung the sword several times back and forth making small swishing sounds in the air. "Even if it's not magic anymore," he said, "It's still a pretty good sword. " Chase stuck the sword in his belt. He wanted to take it home and keep it, but he knew it wasn't really his, so he pulled it back out and set it as nearly as he could in the same place it had been when he found it. "Goodbye, magic sword," he said. He got on his bike and, with one last look at the sword, headed for home. As he pedaled along he was happy because his mom and dad and sister and brother were not squashed flat. And he was glad that the food wasn't all eaten up. He thought about the delicious supper they would have tonight, and that made him pedal faster. Back where the sword was something was happening. The little golden cord was fastening itself back together to form a loop and the loop was stretching itself until it was the size it had been when Chase had found it. Then the sword began to fade. By the time Chase made it home, the little plastic sword had disappeared. THE END |