Today was Billy's Birthday.  Billy thought "Birthdays are special 
days.  Everyone is nicer to you on your birthday."
     Billy was playing outside his house by the kitchen window.  He had 
taken a table knife from the kitchen and was using it to draw a map in 
the dirt.
     The map that Billy drew showed the house, the trails through the 
fields and woods, and the brook that bubbled it way through both fields and 
woods.  He even marked the spot where the club house stood near the lake.
     Suddenly Billy found himself thinking of blueberry pie.  He looked 
up at the window sill of the kitchen window.  There was a blueberry pie 
there.  
     "Mom made that pie for me because it is my birthday." Billy put the 
knife in his pocket and reached up and took the pie from the window sill.
     The wooden plate holding the pie was neither hot nor cold, but the 
pie was much too hot to eat.
     "Where can I go with the pie while I am waiting for it to cool 
down?", wondered Billy.
     Billy thought of the clubhouse by the lake.  Indeed, it was built 
just for the kids to play in.  There was a ladder in the clubhouse that 
could be climed down into the brook.  There were open windows on the 
south and north sides of the clubhouse.
     I shall take this pie to the clubhouse and eat it all by myself", 
Billy said to himself.  Billy took the pie and began to walk.  He walked 
down the trail through the grass fields.  He looked up at the blue sky 
and the white clouds floating above him.
     Billy liked to see pictures in the clouds.  He looked at a cloud 
that looked like a bear.  "If that bear were real, he would eat up all my 
pie", billy said to himself.
     Next the trail wound through the woods.  Billy walked through the 
woods, occasionally looking up at the oak trees.   Carefully, holding the 
pie, Billy continued down the trail through the woods, hopped over a 
snake that lay across his path, and finally came to the clubhouse.
     There he ate half of his pie.  Just then, his friends came, so Billy 
shared the rest of his pie, and played games with them the rest of the day.
     Soon, it was time to go home for super.
     Mom had the table set when Billy came in.  His two younger sisters, 
Flo and Sara, were already sitting at the table.
     "Come sit down Billy", said his mother as she smiled at him.
     Billy ate his peas and carrots quickly.  After supper Mom brought 
blueberry pie to Flo and Sara.
     "Hey!, where is my Pie?", exclaimed Billy.  Mom smiled at Billy.
     "Billy, you have already had your pie."  Billy looked at his 
Mother.  She was not mad at him.  And it was true that he had already had 
his pie.
     Flo and Sara looked at Billy.  Then both, at the same time, cut a 
piece from their slice of pie, and put it on Billy's plate.  
     "Happy Birthday Billy", they said at the same time.
     Billy smiled.  This was a happy ending to his birthday after all.