Once upon a time, there was an apprentice named Tim who lived on a homestead with his family. One day, while working in the fields, Tim noticed that the canteen he always carried with him had started to blowup. He was perplexed, as he had never seen anything like this before.

Just then, his hoarse old mentor Peter came over to see what was wrong. When he saw the canteen, he burst out laughing and told Tim that he had accidentally filled it up with baking soda instead of water.

Tim felt silly, but he couldn't help but laugh at himself too. As they walked back to the homestead, they passed by a stack of pallets. Suddenly, Peter's laughter started to peter out, and he fell to the ground, pretending to be asleep. Tim, not knowing what to do, decided to tickle Peter's feet to wake him up.

Peter sprang up, pretending to be angry, but then broke into laughter again. Tim and Peter laughed so hard, they had to sit down on the pallets to catch their breath. From that day on, Tim always double-checked what he put into his canteen, and he and Peter had many more silly adventures on the homestead.

Reflections

1. Why was Tim perplexed in the story?
2. What happened to Tim's mentor Peter when they passed by the stack of pallets?
3. Why did Tim tickle Peter's feet?
4. What lesson did Tim learn from this experience?