Ups and Downs

Billy saw that it was a nice day. He wanted to practice throwing his frisbee, but he couldn't do it alone. That would be no fun. He went looking for someone to play with him.

"Who would like to go to the trail and throw the frisbee around," he asked the other dolls.

"I will," said Mariah.
"I will," said Mandy.
Both dolls raised their hands, so Billy would know they wanted to come.

The three dolls walked to the trail and looked for a wide space where they could throw the frisbee without hitting anything.

They played for a while with the frisbee. They did a lot of throwing, running and catching.

Then Billy noticed something. "What are all these things?" he asked pointing to the trail. 

The other dolls looked where Billy was pointing. There were lots of prickly things lying all over the ground.

"Those are pine cones," Mandy said. "They hold the seeds for the pine trees and keep them safe until it's time for them to grow." 

"Why are they on the ground?" asked Mariah, looking at the pine cones.

"Well," Mandy began, "they need to be on the ground so the seeds can have dirt to grow in."
"But how did they get there?" Billy wanted to know. "Who put them there?"
"Let's sit down," Mandy suggested. "This will take a while to explain, and we can't talk while we're throwing the frisbee."
The dolls sat down on a bench next to the trail. Before she said anything, Mandy looked off far away, as if she might be remembering something.

"Do you remember when you left the factory in your box?" Mandy asked. She was remembering how she stood in her box in the factory.

"I remember," Mariah said. "I was wondering what my new home would be like."

"I remember, too," said Billy, "but I don't want to think about it, because they dressed me in girl's clothes."

The two girls nodded, because they remembered when Billy came.
"They didn't know I was a boy." He said.
The girls nodded again.
"Well, we got that straightened out," Mandy told him. "The point I was trying to make about that time is that the factory is on the other side of the earth. Your box didn't fly off into space. It stayed right where someone put it, unless it got knocked over."

"Something called gravity held our boxes down," Mandy explained, "even though we were on the other side of the earth. Gravity is what holds us down, so we don't float away. It holds everything to the earth. No matter where you are gravity will keep you from floating away."
"What does that have to do with pine cones?" Mariah asked.

"Gravity," Mandy explained, "is how the pine cones got to the ground. They started out in the trees, you see," she went on. "The tree grows pine cones to protect the seeds until the seeds are ready and it's warm enough for new trees to grow." Mandy got up and climbed down from the bench. "Let's go sit on that log," she suggested. "I think we can see the trees better from there.
The dolls went to the big log Mandy pointed to. They climbed up and sat on it.

"I thought cones were to put ice cream in," Billy said after the dolls were settled on the log.
Mandy rolled her eyes, and that isn't easy because her eyes don't move. "That's a different kind of cone," she said. "They don't grow on trees."
"I thought the tree made pine cones to feed the squirrels," Mariah said.

"They do feed the squirrels," Mandy agreed, "and the squirrels help by planting the seeds. They put them in the ground to save them for later, but they forget some of them. Those seeds can grow into trees."
"Gravity is how the cones got to the ground," Mandy went on. She pointed up at the branches on the tree. 

The dolls could see some pine cones still in the trees.

"The tree only holds the cones up there until it's time for the seeds to grow. Then it lets go," she explained.
"I've got it, I think!" Mariah cried. "Gravity is why the cones fall to the ground instead of just hanging around in the air or floating away."

"That's right," Mandy agreed. "Unless something stops the cones, they land on the ground, like this one."

"What would stop them?" asked Billy.
"They could land on something else before they reach the ground," Mandy explained, "like the one in that bush." She showed them a pine cone that had landed on the branches of a bush.

"The cone will stay there unless the wind blows it away," Mandy said, "or something bumps into the branches. The branches are stronger than the cone is heavy, but they bend."

Mandy thought for a moment. "Gravity was discovered a long time ago by a man named Isaac Newton. There is a story that he was lying under an apple tree," she went on.

"Because it was an apple tree," Mandy continued, "it had apples instead of pine cones, and one of the apples fell and hit him on the head. Isaac Newton started thinking about what made the apple fall and figured out gravity." 

"Look," Billy said, pointing. "I think someone nailed some boards onto the tree to make a ladder, so they could climb the tree. I guess they had to use nails, so gravity wouldn't make the boards fall to the ground."

Billy ran over to the tree and started to climb up it. 

Billy's hat came loose from his head and fell off.

"Come down, Billy," Mandy called to him. "If you climb any higher, you may learn about gravity the hard way, and it's time to go home."
Billy came back down quickly. He wanted to get his hat before the wind blew it away. He picked it up and put it back onto his head.

"Too bad Jolena didn't come with us," said Billy as the dolls started walking home. "She wanted to know all about gravity, too."
"That's OK," Mariah said. "When we get home, you can explain it to her."
"Yes," agreed Mandy. "A good way to help you remember something is to explain it to someone else."

The dolls walked the rest of the way home in silence. Each doll was thinking about what they had seen and learned.

As they reached the house, Mariah said, "Mandy, I still don't know how gravity works. I mean, what makes gravity, and why does a balloon float?"

Mandy paused at the door. "For that," she said, "we need to talk about something called mass. It's complicated. Let's save it for another day. I need to figure out how to show you what mass is."

"I would like to know that, too," Billy said, "and there's something else I'm wondering about. How do seeds turn into trees?"

Maybe we can plant some seeds, so you can see for yourself," she told him. "Let's try some smaller plants, though, because it works the same way, and trees can take many years."

Later that evening, Mandy found herself at the computer, looking online at seeds for vegetables and flowers that grow quickly, and finding out how to explain mass to other dolls.

Cast--
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London

Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz or Classic Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to a charity that supports pediatric cancer, such as CURE Childhood Cancer or St. Baldrick's Foundation
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 2:00 PM Pacific Time.

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Copyright © 2019 by Peggy Stuart