Wilbur and the Jungle Gym

(An excerpt from my 5th-grade reading workbook, The Scratch Papers, now out-of-print. Previous excerpts: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.)

In the schoolyard there is a jungle gym. Almost nobody ever plays on this jungle gym anymore because there are so many new things to play on, such as the Super Squiggly Slide. But Wilbur still likes the jungle gym because he finds it a good place for deep thinking.

Whenever Wilbur wants to think, he goes out to the jungle gym and climbs to the very top. Its bars are old and rusty now and it really isn't all that high. but Wilbur thinks it is a nice place to go and be alone. Once, he sat on top of that jungle gym all through a rainstorm. Several of the other kids thought Wilbur was trying to discover electricity, but, as usual, he was only deeply thinking.