James the Round TOIT

NOTE: Italic centred items are an interactive opportunity for a reading adult to involve a child listener.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE STORY OF JAMES THE ROUND TOIT

Once upon a time, in a far off kingdom, people lived happily and everything was fine.

Well not really but that's how stories start isn't it ?

Anyway, in this far off kingdom lived the TOIT's (pronounced to it), who were the local inhabitants.

Odd though it may seem the TOIT's don't look like us no, in fact there were square TOIT's and triangle TOIT's and all sorts of other odd shaped TOIT's.

There was only one small problem with the TOIT's land and that was that nothing ever got done. Well no, that's not quite right, thinks got done but for some reason or other somehow they never got finished. Now this left unfinished jobs all over Toitville, which of course made the TOIT King "Robert the Square", very sad.

He was sad because day after day, his beloved town was more and more cluttered with unfinished jobs; half completed works and never finished music.

As time passed in this beautiful land unfinished jobs become more and more common, which made more clutter and mess and unfortunately for our beloved TOIT's, the clutter and mess of the town grew and grew until finally the whole city of Toitville was awash with clutter and jumble, unfinished music and never completed jobs.

Now, one day into this fine mess, to a very respectable family of square and triangle TOIT's was born a healthy bouncing baby boy they named James.

James's parents noticed right away that he was different from the rest. He was not square like his sister nor was he triangle like his big brother; in fact he was not even rectangular like his uncle Herbert.

' No' his parents where heard to say 'he is definitely a most unusual shape.'

Now James was loved by his parents even though he was different, in fact his farther had been heard to say.

'Why our James is special, wwwwouldn't you say so my dear' to which his mother had replied.

'Why of course, all children are special, in their own way' at which both of them had smiled lovingly at their son.

In time James grew up to be a strong, brave and noble TOIT even though he was different from all other TOIT's.

Sometimes the sillier TOIT's called him names like 'Curved boy' and 'Circle kid' but he didn't seem to mind that because he liked the name 'Circle Kid', as it made him feel special and as James grew up he noticed something extraordinary.

Can you guess what that was ?

NO ?

Well let me tell you.  What was extraordinary was that whenever James was around things got done; I mean Jobs got finished, music was completed and work just ran smoothly.

Of course as the jobs got finished the mess and clutter of Toitville began to be cleaned up.

Now, one day, as the King "Robert the Square" was walking through the town, he came to the part of town where James lived.

Can you guess what he saw ?

NO ?

YES ?

Well let me tell you, he saw NO MESS and finished jobs and Robert "The Square" was surprised. In fact he was so surprised he sat down in the middle of the street, with a thump,

open mouthed and stared in awe at the beautiful buildings that were finished all around him.

Of course the King asked all who passed, 'Who is responsible for this.' and the answer always came back "James the Circle Kid".

So the King invited James to the castle.

When James arrived at the castle the King said.

'James I have see all the good things that you have done and I would like to offer you a job'

'Me sir' James replied quickly

'Yes James' continued the King 'I want you to be my minister of labour.'

Surprised by the Kings thoughtfulness James of course accepted the job and on that day forth a Royal proclamation went throughout the land and this is it.

"From this day I Robert "The Square" appointed James "The Circle Kid" to be minister of labour.

No job may be started within the lands of TOIT unless James approves of it."

So from that very day, whenever a job was to be done, James was on the scene and wherever James was seen the job was finished.

In no time flat the kingdom of TOIT was the most beautiful in the world, all the jobs were done, all the music finished and all the clutter and mess was cleaned up.

This of course made the king happy, which in turn made the people happy.

After many years the King, who was now a VERY happy old TOIT said.

'I will reward my faithful servant James for all his hard work and service. Tomorrow I will appoint James to be the first "Chancellor of the ROUND", the most important person in the kingdom responsible for all work in the kingdom.'

So James was appointed the first "Chancellor of the ROUND" and became the most famous TOIT in the kingdom where he righted wrongs, fought Dragons, raised children and was generally the most popular TOIT of his generation.

Today this story is only legend, remembered in our mind by saying such as:

'I will do the job when I get a 'ROUND TOIT'.

Which is of course a reference to James the very first "Round TOIT"

THE END