Some years ago I told stories to children about a little purple man called “Purp”. I have decided to post one of them on this blog – with maybe more later.
PURP AND THE SNOWMAN
Once upon a time there was a little purple man called Purp. He was very small and not very tall, and lived with his friend, Mervyn. They could have called him “Purple” – because he was purple all over and loved to wear purple clothes, but they called him “Purp” for short.
One night it snowed very heavily. In the morning when Purp looked out the window, everything was white and beautiful.
“What’s all that white stuff?” he asked Mervyn.
“That, my dear little Purple man, is snow.”
“What good is it?”
“Well you see it is very beautiful, and people like to play in it.”
“What do they play?”
“Well, they have snowball fights for one thing.”
“OK, I’ll fight you” boasted Purp.
“Purp, you haven’t got a chance against a big guy like me, let’s find some other game to play.”
“I know you are frightened, big boy” said Purp, “but I want a fight, and you’re going to get one.”
“OK, Purp” said Mervyn, and the two went outside.
Mervyn was standing, looking at the beautiful winter scene, and then he heard a little tiny voice:
“Gotcha.”
“What do you mean, Gotcha” said Mervyn. And then he looked down and saw a little white patch of snow on his trousers near his ankle.
“OK Purp, you asked for it” said Mervyn, and he reached down and grabbed a handful of snow. After he made his snowball he looked down at Purp standing near his feet, and wondered what to do next. “I can’t throw this huge snowball at my little purple man” he thought, “I guess I will just drop it.”
So Mervyn looked down at Purp, aimed the snowball and dropped it.
Purp was looking up and saw it coming straight at him. “Yikes” he said, and scurried around behind Mervyn’s leg.
He moved just in time. The next thing he knew he saw the snowball hit Mervyn’s shoe with a big splat. As soon as Purp saw that, he went back to the front where he could see Mervyn, and said: “I got you twice!”
“You win, Purp” said Mervyn, “now let’s go see what the children are doing.”
They were out there playing in the snow, and rolling huge snowballs.
“What are those kids doing?” he asked Purp.
“They’re making a snowman,” answered Mervyn.
“Can we make a snowman – can we? – can we make a snowman, too?”
Purp got very excited at the thought. The air was bright and clear, and the snow was soft and fluffy.
“Let’s go, big boy!” said Purp. “You make a snowman over there, and I will make a much better one over here!”
Purp sounded very confident. So Mervyn made a snowball, and then rolled it around the field until it got bigger and bigger. He wasn’t paying any attention to Purp.
Meanwhile, Purp had started his snowball and it was going great until he came to the top of the hill and it started to roll down the other side. The snowball began rolling faster than Purp could push it. “Uh, oh!” said Purp, and he held on to the snowball, trying to stop it from rolling any more. But before he knew what was happening, he found himself rolled up inside the snowball, and still it rolled, getting bigger and bigger until it finally came to a rest at the bottom of the field hitting the big wooden fence.
“Oh, dear,” said Purp. “I’m stuck. How do you get out of these things?”
And then some children found the great big snowball he was in, picked it up (it took three of them to lift it), and they carried it up the hill, and put it on top of the two big snowballs they already had. It made a wonderful head to their snowman.
Meanwhile, Mervyn was working as fast as he could. He wanted to make the best snowman and he didn’t even stop to think about Purp or watch what he was doing. He just said to himself, “Purp is going to be sorry he said that about making a better snowman. This is the best snowman in the whole wide world.” He put the finishing touches on his snowman, and backed up to take a good look.
The kids behind him yelled, “Hey mister, watch where you’re going, you almost knocked over our snowman.”
Mervyn turned around and had to look up to see the top of this huge, beautiful snowman.
“Did you make this snowman?” he asked the children.
He looked up and he thought he saw the carrot nose wiggle.
Before they could answer, he heard a tiny little voice coming out of the snowman’s mouth. He saw what he thought was a purple tongue moving, and it said, “No, they didn’t make it, I did.”
Purp crawled out of the snowman’s mouth, and looked down at Mervyn’s creation.
“That is pretty good, for a beginner,” he said. “But nice try, anyway!”
