Hi, world. I'm eight... AND A HALF. My real name is Tyler. But my friends call me, "Shortstop." Means I'm the shortest kid in my school. Big Bill, the bully calls me, "little, Pip-squeak." What ever he means by that. Devil-may-care. I know I don't care. Big Bill can beat me punching. But he can't beat me running.
That evens stuff up, in my favor. I've dreamed that one day I grew up to be bigger than Big Bill. I got bigger than the Jolly Green Giant. I was glad that I was green, because that's what color the incredible Hulk is. Big Bill didn't bully me no more. And I got to keep my allowance change for after school treats.

Dad gave me a German Shepherd puppy. Harriet, the pesky pigtails who lived next door named him, Scruffy, because one day he peed on the carpet in her doll house floor. Her bad. Not my puppy's. Never should have invited us in. I didn't care to hang out in any stupid doll house. But for bait, Harriet kept a dish of assorted candy in there. So....

Scruffy grew up to be a big German Shepherd dog. He grew real big. At my place he became our watch dog. I guess you could kind of say that we were, "almost," poor. It was dinner time. Mom opened the cupboard. There was no food there, except a can of weenies and beanies. There was no food for Scruffy. Not even a dry bone.

"Heaven forbid," Mom cried, "please, Scruffy. Forgive me. We're hungry too."
I've got to help, I thought. I'll ask the cow farmer to please spare us a cow, in trade for work.

The cow farmer was in trouble when me and Scruffy saw him. He was fighting a wolf,
that was trying to steal a cow.

Scruffy growled like a tiger, and chased the wolf away. The farmer was happy.

"Thank you." he said.
"You're welcome." I said.

The farmer gave us a cow.

"Thank you," I said.
"You're welcome," said the farmer.

"Let's ask the chicken farmer to please spare us a hen, in trade for work." I said to Scruffy.
This farmer was in trouble too. He was fighting a weasel that was trying to steal a hen.

Scruffy growled like a tiger, and chased the weasel away. The farmer was happy.

"Thank You," he said.
"You're welcome," I said.

The hen farmer gave us a hen.

"Thank you," I said.
"You're welcome," he said.

"Let's ask the wheat farmer to please spare us a bag of grain, in trade for work," I said to Scruffy.
This farmer was in trouble also. He was fighting people who were trying to steal wheat.

Scruffy growled like a tiger, and chased the people away.

"Thank you," said the farmer.
"You're welcome," I said.

The farmer gave us a bag of grain.

"Thank you," I said.
"You're welcome," he said.

Mom was happy.

"thank you, my dear family," she said.
"You're welcome, my dear Mother," I said.

The next day me and Scruffy worked hard at what we do best. We came home with all kinds of vegetable
seed, in a jumbo-sized bag.

"We've all been blessed," Mom said, " now we can start our own farm."

Me and Scruffy helped Mom work in our farm. We fought wolves, weasels, foxes, wild dogs, and any and all other thieves that were trying to steal, from us, or our neighbors.

We all worked happily together. Our farm grew and grew. It grew until it grew into a farm that was larger than the Jolly Green Giant's farm.

Soon. we had all that we needed, and much more extra.

We gave the cow farmer two cows.
We gave the hen farmer two hens.
We gave the wheat farmer two bags of grain.
We gave the vegetable farmer two bags of vegetable seed.

Everything we gave to our neighbors, was for free.

We were all happy. We were all thankful. We were all blessed.