LeRoy took the spade from his neighbor's shed. He could have used dad's, but he saw the shed next door was opened with the spade beckoning him. Carefully looking to his left and to his right to be sure no one was watching him he reached his hand inside and took it. He was going to dig a hole straight through the earth to China.

Finding a likely spot at the edge of the vegetable garden, he placed the blade into the ground and stamped down on it with his right foot. Working the shovel back and forth in the unyielding ground, he pulled up the first clump and threw it over his shoulder. Deeper and deeper he went. Surely he was getting close to China. Again and again, he attacked the ground making a nice round hole straight down into the earth. Maybe with the next couple of digs, he would see a Chinese man grinning at him and waving excitedly as he came up on the other side of the globe.

Again, he sunk the blade into the ground and heaved up a chunk of earth. Depositing it on the growing pile behind him, he felt sure he was close to his goal. LeRoy was a determined little boy; he always was. Once he set his mind to a job, he finished it. For a seven year old, he had spunk. He had wanted to dig to China for a long time. Today was going to be the day. Working hard with his spade, he went further down into the earth.

At first, his mother could see his whole body as he started to dig then he was up to his knees. Pretty soon, his upper body was all that was visible. When his head sunk beneath the ground, his mother began to worry. "LeRoy," she called as she stepped out onto the porch. "Get out of that hole," she yelled as she rushed closer to the gap in the earth.

Ignoring his mother's anxious voice, LeRoy took one more dig with his spade. Water gushed up around him as sand gave way beneath his feet. Tossing the spade onto the mound of dirt he had created, he scrambled out of the hole and onto solid ground before the quicksand could take a grip on him.

"Where did you think you were going, LeRoy?" his mother asked, relieved that her child was safe.

"Nowhere," the child answered as he picked the spade up to return it to the neighbor's shed.