Adventures Far from Home

By Martha Kerr

In the Central American country of Costa Rica archaeologists have found smoothly carved stone spheres of various sizes, but they dont know who made them nor why. The first story is a fanciful explanation of the origin of these stone balls.

In the first story Costa Rica has been destroyed by an erupting volcano. Rose and Carol are invited to join children from all over the world helping to rebuild the landscape. They spend the summer doing such things as carving trees, painting flowers, caring for baby animals and birds, and riding around on a flying carpet with a boy from Arabia. At their final party they find out why the stone balls were made.

In the second story as a reward for this work Rose and Carol are invited to visit the fairies Winter Festival in the far north. They spend time in an Eskimo igloo, slide down an ice slide, skate, watch Northern Lights, and learn of a problem that may prevent the festival from coming to a successful conclusion. Rose and Carol become involved with this crisis.

In the third story their younger brother Andy accompanies an Irish neighbor on a visit to Ireland. While there they tramp the Irish hills, explore castles, and encounter leprechauns. Then they have to race down the Shannon River trying to escape leprechauns that are chasing them.

Come with Rose, Carol, and Andy on these adventures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512749977

Martha Kerr

I am the oldest of five children. As a child I loved the magic of fairy stories. The children of my brothers and sisters are very special to me. The brother next after me took his wife and two daughters to Costa Rica to become missionaries. He wrote that their older girl, Sharon, age 5, was learning to read, but she didn’t want her parents to know this because she wanted them to read to her. I decided to show her there are rewards for learning to read, so I wrote to her that if she learned to read and her mommy and daddy sent me a letter saying she could read I would write her a story. Soon I received a letter from her saying she could read and asking me to write her a story. When her family was back here for their first furlough with a baby brother and she was eight I gave her her story for Christmas. Not long after that I received a letter from her younger sister, Becky, asking me to write her a story. I hadn’t expected to have to write another one, and it took me a year to think up a plot. Becky received her story at their next furlough, when she was nine. Andy didn’t get his story until he was 15 and living with his parents at a new mission in Spain. It was delivered to him by his Aunt Mary and Uncle Peter who were on their way back to their mission in Japan. I love ice and snow. In 2006 I moved from Chicago to Fairbanks, Alaska, where ice and snow and northern lights abound, because I thought it would be a great adventure. And it has been.

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Contents

SHARON’S STORY

Who Made All Those Stone Balls?

BECKY’S STORY

The Fairy King’s Scepter

ANDY’S STORY

The Third Wish

AUTHOR’S NOTE

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SHARON’S STORY

Who Made All Those Stone Balls?

H ave you ever heard of the country of Costa Rica? It is located on that little thin piece of land between North and South America. A thin piece of land between two bigger pieces is called an isthmus. When Europeans began to explore Costa Rica they found a whole lot of balls made out of stone. The balls are all different sizes, from as small as a softball to taller than a person. People who study such things think the first people who lived there carved the balls out of stone. But they don’t know why the people made them. Well, I know the real story of why those stone balls were made. Would you like to hear it?

First, I have to tell you about two little girls who lived with their father and mother and baby brother. Their names were Rose and Carol, and the baby brother was called Andy. Rose liked to paint pictures, especially pictures of flowers. Carol liked to make music, and she had a flute and a little harp that she had learned to play. She also liked to listen to bird songs, and she had learned to imitate some of them.

They had a neighbor, an older man who had come from Ireland. His name was Mr. Meenan. He taught Rose how to paint shamrocks and he made the harp for Carol and gave her lessons on it. He taught them many Irish songs, and sometimes he would tell them Irish stories. Their favorite stories were the ones about the little leprechauns, the shoes they made, and the pots of gold they guarded at the ends of the rainbows.

One afternoon, when little Andy was about a month old, the whole family was in the living room together. Daddy was working on a logic problem. Carol was playing her flute. Rose was drawing a picture of a daffodil to hang over her brother’s crib. Mommy was feeding Andy. And somebody outside knocked at the door. Daddy looked up and said, Carol, go see who is at the door.

When Carol opened the door she found a beautiful lady standing there. Come in, she invited. The lady was wearing a long dress, with a cape over her shoulders, and she walked into the room so gracefully she almost seemed to be floating.

Hello, everyone, she greeted them, as she sat down in the chair Daddy offered her. My name is Porphyry. She looked at the two girls. What are your names?

Rose.

Carol.

She then turned to their mother. Why did you give your children those names?

Mommy answered, When they were born they made me so happy I named them for a flower and a song.

The lady said nothing for a minute. Then she said to them, I have come to see you about an important matter. It concerns a country far to the south of here.

How far away is it? asked Rose.

Many, many leagues.

Rose wondered what a league was. She decided it must be a measure of distance. Anyway, it sounded like the country was very far away.

The lady continued, This country was very beautiful. The sun smiled on it, the rain washed it, the winds fanned it. Birds sang and animals played. It was like a garden.

Carol could just imagine that beautiful country. But then she noticed that the lady kept saying was instead of is. Did something happen to it? she asked.

Yes, answered the lady. First there was a very big earthquake. This caused cracks in some of the mountains, and there began to be lava eruptions. Do you know what lava is? The girls shook their heads. Lava is rock that has gotten so hot it has melted. Deep inside the earth all the rock is that hot. Sometimes this melted rock flows out of cracks in the hard rock above it. Sometimes the pressure gets so great that it bursts its own hole in the hard rock and comes pouring out. A place where lava comes out of the earth is called a volcano. That is what happened to this country. The lava flowed out and buried all the grass and flowers and trees. It filled up all the rivers. It covered everything. All the birds and animals ran away. Now there is no grass to carpet the valleys. There are no flowers to spangle the hillsides. There are no birds to sing and no trees for them to sing in. It is all just black rock.

Everyone was quiet, thinking about the beautiful country that once had been and feeling sad that it was now destroyed.

Finally Rose looked up at the lady and asked, Will it always be like that now?

Well, the lady replied, that is what I have come to see you about. You see, I belong to a very large council, which has many members from all over the world. One of the members brought us the news of what had happened to that country, and the Council decided to see if anything could be done about it. First we waited two years, to let the lava finish cooling. Then the Council sent a special group to inspect the country. I was part of that group. We traveled all over the country, observing it and considering it. Then we came back and reported our findings. The Council spent many sessions discussing it. Finally they concluded that the country could be rebuilt. And how do you think they decided to do it? By giving the job to children.

To children! exclaimed Rose and Carol. Mommy and Daddy didn’t say anything, but they looked surprised!

Yes, to children. Those of us who were part of the original group were now given a new task. It is to travel all over the world looking for children who can do things that are needed to rebuild the country, to explain to them what happened to the country, and to see if they are willing to come and help fix it.

Rose and Carol were just amazed. They couldn’t imagine how children could help. Finally Carol asked, Will grown-ups be there, too?

No. Only the ones from the Council.

Rose had a puzzled frown. How can children help?

The lady pointed to Rose’s nearly finished picture of the daffodil. What are you doing there?

Startled, Rose looked down at it. I’m making this picture for my brother, to put by his crib.

It’s a very nice picture. You like to draw and paint flower pictures, don’t you? She looked around the room at some of the other drawings Rose had made. Rose nodded. The lady went on, Suppose I told you you could have a chance to paint real flowers?

Rose couldn’t understand what the lady meant. Those are real flowers.

No, the lady answered, "they are only pictures of real flowers. If you came with me to that country you could paint the flowers themselves. You see, some children there will be putting flowers together, giving them their form. But then someone is needed next to give them color. I see that that is something you could do."

Rose thought about it. Will I have to stay there for always?

No. We think that if we can find enough children to help it will only take a few months. Then, when it is finished, all the children will be brought home again. Would you like to come down there and paint flowers?

Rose thought some more. And then she made the decision. Yes, I would!

Good, the lady said, smiling. I thought you would like to.

Carol was sitting there thinking how wonderful it all sounded and how much she would like to go, too.

In the middle of her excitement about going, Rose suddenly thought about Carol. Could Carol go too? It sounded so delightful that she didn’t want Carol to miss it. She wondered if she could ask for Carol to go, too.

Can other children go, just to watch? she began.

No, the lady replied, we are taking only children who will be helping with the work.

Oh, dear, thought Rose, disappointed. I guess that means Carol can’t go after all.

Carol was thinking, Oh, how I wish I could go with Rose! It sounds like so much fun, and besides I will miss her so.

Then the lady turned to Carol. Carol, she said, I heard someone making music when I came to the door. Was that you?

Yes. I was playing my flute.

Play it again.

Carol put it to her mouth and began to blow across it. Her fingers twinkled up and down the flute, and music danced around the room.

When she stopped, the lady said, You can sing like the birds, too, can’t you?

Oh, yes, said Carol, and puckering up her mouth she began to trill and whistle. Everyone enjoyed it, as they recognized different songbirds.

Then the lady continued, After the grass and flowers and trees are restored and the brooks and rivers are running, the next job will be to fill the land with birds and animals.

Will the children make animals, too? asked Rose.

No, said the lady, shaking her head, we have a different plan for that part of it. Just as we have gone all around the world looking for children to help build the land, so we are also going to look for animal children and bird children to go down there, too. But, unlike you children, they are going to stay there. So we are going to bring them there while they are still babies, so they won’t remember their first home and be lonesome for it. But since they will be just babies that means their mommies and daddies won’t have a chance to teach them the things mommies and daddies teach their children. But we have promised we will take good care of the babies and we will find children to teach them. The mommies and daddies know they can trust us. That is why they are willing to let us take some of their children to the new country.

The lady paused and looked at Carol. When they get big enough, someone must teach the baby birds how to sing. Carol, you can make music, and you can teach the birds. Would you like to come down there and teach the little birds how to sing?

Carol jumped right out of her chair. I can go too! I can go too!

Well, the lady laughed, I guess that is a pretty clear answer.

But then Carol thought of something else. Would Mommy and Daddy let them go? She looked at both of them. Neither one looked worried. Mommy? Daddy? Can we go with her to the new country?

Daddy smiled and nodded his head. Mommy added, We know Porphyry will take good care of you.

Well, said Porphyry, you will need a few days to get ready. You will probably want to say goodbye to your friends, too. So I will come back here in the evening four days from now. That is when you will leave.

Rose and Carol spent the next several days visiting their friends, telling them where they were going, and saying goodbye. Mr. Meenan didn’t seem surprised, but he was very interested, and he asked them lots of questions about it. Carol also climbed up into the trees and said goodbye to many of the birds she knew.

Early in the evening on the fourth day, right after supper, Porphyry again knocked at the door. Rose and Carol were both watching for her, and they ran to the door and invited her in.

We’re almost ready! they told her. Mommy is packing us a lunch, and we have everything else ready.

That’s good, Porphyry replied. Why don’t you bring your things into the living room, so I can check them over.

Carol brought out a suitcase with clothes in it for both of them. Rose brought out her crayons, paper, and paints. Porphyry looked at these things. Then she said, Rose, you won’t need to take any paper. You are going to paint right on the flowers, remember?

Oh, that’s right, laughed Rose. She took the paper back and put it away again.

And Carol, Porphyry continued, bring your flute, and your harp, too. You can use them down there. Carol hurried off to get them.

When everything was ready Rose went to the front door to look out and see what they