n the way home from school, just as she had almost reached home, Totto-chan discovered something enticing by the side of the road. It was a huge pile of sand. How extraordinary to find sand there, so far from the sea! Was she dreaming! Totto-chan was thrilled. After a preliminary little hop she ran at great speed toward the pile of sand and leaped onto its summit. But it wasn't sand after all! Inside, it was a heap of prepared gray wall plaster. She sank into it with a "blop" and found herself covered in the gummy stuff right up to her chest, like a statue, complete with schoolbag and shoe bag. The more she snuggled to get our, the more her feet slid about. Her shoes almost came off, and she had to be careful not to become buried in it completely. So there was nothing she could do but stay still, with her left arm stuck in the gooey mixture holding onto her shoe bag. One or two women whom she didn't know went by, and she said to them, "Excuse me .. ." in a small voice, but they all thought she was playing and smiled and went on their way.

As evening fell and it began to get dark, Mother came looking for her and was astonished to find Totto-chan's head sticking out of the pile. She found a pole and had Totto-chan hold one end of it while she pulled her out. She had first tried to pull her out by hand, but Mother's foot started to get stuck in the plaster.

Totto-chan was covered with gray plaster just like a wall.

"I thought I told you once before," said Mother, "when you see something that looks intriguing, don't jump on it straight away. Look before you leap!"

The "once before" that Mother was referring to happened during a lunch hour at school. Totto-chan was strolling along the little path behind the Assembly Hall when she saw a newspaper lying in the middle of the path. Thinking it would be fun to see if she could jump onto the newspaper, she took a few steps back, gave a little hop, and then, aiming for the center of the newspaper, ran toward it with tremendous speed and leaped onto it. But the newspaper had been left there by the janitor as a temporary covering for the cesspool opening mentioned before. He had gone away to do something and had laid the newspaper over the hole to keep the smell in because the concrete lid was off. Totto-chan fell right through and into the cesspool with a great big "plop." It was really awful. But fortunately they managed to make a clean little girl of Totto-chan again. That was the time Mother was talking about.

"No, I won't jump on anything again," said Totto-chan, quietly. Mother was relieved. But what Totto-chan said next made Mother think her relief was a bit premature.

"I won't jump onto a newspaper or a pile of sand ever again."

Mother was quite sure Totto-chan might easily take it into her head to lump onto something else.

The days were getting shorter and it was quite dark by the time they reached home.