The Stool Beside the Long Table
Chapter 1Only One Stool
Every boy at the long table was standing except Pinny.
He had a high stool beside his place.
Boruch looked at it while folding another paper bag.
They were helping pack book bundles for the community reading sale. Mr. Adler had asked them to stand so the bags, books, and labels could move smoothly along the table.
Pinny was passing bundles from his stool.
"Why does he get to sit?" Boruch asked his friend.
His friend shrugged.
The stool had begun to look like a prize nobody had announced.
Chapter 2A Job on His Feet
Boruch folded eight bags, then ten.
He shifted from one foot to the other.
Pinny reached for the labels and missed one. It dropped to the floor.
Boruch picked it up.
"Comfortable?" he asked.
Pinny looked at him.
"Mostly. Thank you."
The answer annoyed Boruch more than a complaint would have.
He wanted Pinny to know the rest of them were doing the harder version.
Then Mr. Adler brought Pinny a low box for his foot.
Pinny rested his bandaged ankle on it.
Boruch had not noticed the bandage beneath the table.
Chapter 3The Reason He Didn't Need
At break, Boruch asked Mr. Adler about the stool.
"Pinny needs to keep weight off that ankle," Mr. Adler said. "His parent checked that this seated job is all right for him."
Boruch thought of asking how badly it was hurt.
If it was only a small injury, perhaps Pinny could stand a little.
He stopped.
Boruch wasn't the person deciding what the ankle could manage.
He didn't need a detailed report before accepting the arrangement Mr. Adler had made.
"My feet are tired too," he said.
"Then tell me what you need for your own work."
Chapter 4His Own Request
Boruch explained that he had been standing in the same spot since the bags arrived.
Mr. Adler checked the time and called a short break for the group. Afterward, he moved Boruch to a seated job counting spare labels.
Another boy took over bag folding.
Pinny stayed with the bundles, where he could reach them without moving his ankle.
The jobs weren't all identical.
The reason Boruch could sit wasn't that he had proved Pinny should stand.
His own tired feet had been enough to ask about.
He could have made that request before deciding the stool was unfair.
Chapter 5The Remark to Repair
Boruch carried the label box back to the table.
"I'm sorry I asked 'comfortable' like that," he told Pinny. "I was complaining about your stool instead of asking for a break."
Pinny nodded.
"I would rather be able to run at break."
Boruch hadn't thought of the part the stool didn't give.
He didn't ask when Pinny could run or tell him the injury couldn't be very bad.
"Do you want the labels nearer?"
"Please. That edge is awkward from here."
Boruch moved them within reach and returned to counting.
He didn't make helping Pinny into proof that his first remark had been kind.
Chapter 6The Faster Counter
Boruch was quick at counting labels.
He made groups of ten and marked each group with a slip.
Pinny was slower passing the bundles because he couldn't reach the far stack.
Boruch nearly suggested giving his stool to someone who would move the books faster.
Then he looked at the setup instead of the person.
"Could we put the finished stacks closer to Pinny?"
Mr. Adler shifted the box.
The bundles moved more easily.
A job could need a different arrangement without needing a different boy.
Chapter 7Two Empty Boxes
At the end, the boys cleared the table.
Mr. Adler carried the heavy book boxes. Boruch took two empty cartons to the storage corner.
Pinny stayed seated and peeled unused labels from the table surface, as instructed.
One boy said, "You got the easiest cleanup."
Boruch could have said that too an hour earlier.
"Mr. Adler gave us different jobs," he said. "The empty boxes are easy as well."
He didn't explain Pinny's ankle to the group. Pinny could say what he wanted about it himself.
The other boy took a carton and helped him stack them.
Chapter 8Next Week's Table
The next week, Pinny still used the stool.
Boruch didn't ask whether he ought to be finished with it by now.
He asked Mr. Adler which job he should begin with, and when the group would take a break.
They started with the boxes close to the table and labels within reach.
There was one stool beside the long table, another chair at the counting desk, and several places to stand.
Boruch could see how the whole job worked now.
He didn't have to make every place look the same before any of them could be fair.
He picked up the first bag and checked which books belonged inside.
