“Penny! Oh, Penny!”
A twelve-year-old girl put her book to one side and peered down through the leaves that hid her tree-house from view. It was Sally and Jim. Wonder what they wanted her for? Her book was interesting, so Penny decided not to answer, and soon the two had disappeared up the lane.
Penny settled herself comfortably and went back to her book. Her tree-house was just a platform built high up in three basswood trees that grew so closely together near the ground that they appeared to be one trunk. The big leaves formed shady walls and roof. Just now the air was filled with fragrance and the pleasant humming of bees, for the basswoods were in bloom.
It was a wonderful tree house! It was a place to run to and be alone in. The gentle swaying of the trees was like the slight swinging of a hammock. Penny had built it all by herself, and it had really been a hard job to make it good and strong because of working with three trees instead of just one. She had nailed “two by fours” from tree to tree to form a triangle, and then had nailed the floorboards in place.
Penny was a bookworm and spent many happy hours in her tree-house reading the summer when she was twelve. During the winter when the winds blew and storms blustered the tree-house rocked back and forth as the three trees bent this way and that. Somehow the little platform hung together.
When summer came again Penny was eager to use her tree-house once more. She was thirteen now, and a bigger, heavier girl than she had been the summer before. And the tree-house was no longer quite so strong. The nails had twisted and loosened as the three trees had wrestled with the winter wind. But Penny did not think of this.
One day found Penny settled snuggly with a good book high up in her tree-house. As she became interested in her story she did not notice the sky growing dark. The leafy roof kept the first few drops of rain from reaching her. Then the wind suddenly set the little platform rocking.
A loud cracking noise beneath her startled Penny. What was happening? It felt like the platform was giving way! A stronger gust of wind—a louder cracking!—and Penny was falling!
Just in time she caught the branch of the nearest tree, and managed to leap to the ground with just a few skinned places. Looking up into the trees she saw her tree-house hanging sadly from just one corner!
“I guess I wasn’t very wise to build in three trees,” Penny said to herself. “That made a poor foundation—as bad as the man who built his house upon the sand! I might have gotten killed falling out of that house. I’ll have to build better next time!”
Building a life can be the most thrilling thing in the world! But it can also be very sad. Would you like to be good builders, boys and girls?
Of course you would! First of all, don’t make Penny’s mistake and start with a poor foundation, for if you do, sooner or later your house will fall. Listen to the story the Lord Jesus told: “Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it” (Matt. 7:24-2724Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. (Matthew 7:24‑27)).