The Two Kinds of Neat

Chapter 1The Long Row

Braindy and her cousin Raizy were tidying the shared pencil tray before the little children came to draw.

Braindy lined the pencils up from longest to shortest.

The row looked like steps going down a hill.

Raizy picked out three blue pencils and put them together.

"Those were in order," Braindy said.

"I am putting them in order."

They looked at the tray. The same pencils had suddenly become two different arguments.

Chapter 2Color or Size

"Long ones here, short ones there," Braindy said.

"Then you have to look all over for blue," Raizy replied.

"If you mix the lengths, the tray looks messy."

"Colors make it look neat."

Braindy moved the longest blue back to the end of her row.

Raizy moved it beside the other blues.

Neither girl had broken or lost anything. Neither had finished the tray, either.

A short yellow pencil lay between them, waiting to be part of somebody's order.

Chapter 3The First Small Customer

Little Devorah came in carrying a page with an empty sky.

"Can I have blue?"

Braindy reached for the long row. Raizy reached for the color group.

Their hands met over the tray.

Devorah watched them.

"Any blue."

Raizy gave her a pencil. It was very short.

Devorah held it awkwardly.

"A bigger blue?"

Braindy found a longer one and passed it over.

Devorah went back to her sky. Both girls had helped, but finding one useful pencil had taken too much conversation.

Chapter 4What the Tray Was For

Braindy laid the short blue beside the short yellow.

"That one is hard for her to hold."

"The little ones might need their own place," Raizy said.

They looked at Devorah, who was coloring steadily now.

The tray was not only for looking nice. People needed to find a color and a pencil they could use.

"Could we keep colors together," Braindy asked, "and put the very short ones in a cup?"

Raizy found an empty cup on the supply shelf.

"We can try it."

Chapter 5A Tray and a Cup

They sorted the regular pencils by color and placed the short ones in the cup.

Braindy straightened each group so the points faced the same way.

Raizy left room between the colors instead of pressing everything into one tight pile.

The tray did not look like Braindy's steps anymore. It did not look exactly like Raizy's first piles, either.

Then another little girl asked for green.

Braindy pointed to the green group. The girl found a pencil without either cousin taking one away to move it somewhere else.

Chapter 6The Short Ones Still Counted

Raizy used a short brown pencil for a tiny bird on her own page.

"This is fine for me," she said.

Braindy tried the short yellow for the bird's beak.

The cup had not made the little pencils useless. It had made them easier to choose when someone wanted one.

Devorah returned her long blue to the blue group.

"Where does this go?"

"Right there," Braindy said.

Raizy smiled. They both meant the same place this time.

Chapter 7Ready for Tomorrow

The cousins checked the tray. Braindy returned red to the reds; Raizy put two short pencils in the cup.

"Neat," Braindy said.

"And you can find blue."

"A blue big enough to hold."

They put the tray and cup on the shelf, ready for tomorrow's drawings.