The Community Center

[This is the follow-up to the story of the Little Giant building a new house.]

Little Giant and his friends went to the log. Little Giant took his saw and cut a door and then went inside the hollow log. He looked around and thought, "Hmm. This place needs some finishing. I think that some sap will make the walls smooth. We will need some brushes to put it on."

The animals got some pine needles and some of the leftover string from Little Giant's house. They tied the needles to small twigs. Then they took a bark bucket to the nearest tree. They used Little Giant's ax to cut a hole in the tree. They stuck a curved piece of bark into the hole and put the bucket under it so that the sap ran out and dripped into it.

While the sap was collecting, they took another bark bucket and Little Giant's shovel and filled the bucket with dirt. They took the bucket down to the stream and filled it with water to make mud. They took the bucket of mud inside the log. They made four plops of mud. Then they took four sticks and stood them up in the mud plops. Then Owl brought them bark to put on top of the four sticks. When it was done they said, "Now we have a platform in our Community Center for giving speeches and for a band."

Then they went back to the tree they were sapping and checked the bucket. There was enough sap in it. They took it inside the log and painted all of the walls with sap using the pine needle brushes. Soon the walls were nice and smooth.

Little Giant used his saw to cut some windows. Then he cut a hole in the floor of the log and everyone helped clear away the grass that was there. Little Giant got some small rocks and put them around the hole. He covered the edge of the hole with mud to keep the log from catching on fire. Now the Community Center had a fire place. Then the Little Giant went outside and climbed on top of the log. There he cut another hole above the fire pit so that the smoke could get out. He used some bark, some more mud, and some sticks to build a little cap over the hole to stop snow and rain from getting in. Then he climbed down and joined his friends inside.

"Now we have a Community Center," said the Little Giant.

"Let's use it to put on a show," said Owl.