Binky was very excited as he sat at the breakfast table, eating a bowl of cereal. The Secret Message Decoder Button he ordered had finally arrived! He had eaten dozens of boxes of Crunchy Munchy cereal over the past few months in order to collect enough coupons from the box tops to send away for the Decoder Button. Now he would finally be able to decipher the Secret Messages that were printed on the bottom of each cereal box. He studied the button as he ate. It was purple and had letters and numbers around the edge. Sometimes the Secret Messages were written in letters, sometimes they were done with numbers. He felt very special to be the owner of an Official Secert Decoder Button.
He finished breakfast and took a notebook and pen out of his backpack. He busily began deciphering the Secret Message he had copied from the bottom of the cereal box. Soon he had the message neatly printed out on a post card. He was rather disappointed with the message, however. It read: "Eat Crunchy Munchy cereal for breakfast every day!" A small, queasy shiver washed over him, but his excitement quickly returned. Now that he had the message deciphered and printed out on a card, he could send it in to the cereal company and perhaps win a prize. The first 200 participants who returned a correctly deciphered message were eligible to win prizes.
About two weeks later, Binky decided to pack his backpack with a small lunch and ride his scooter up to town and visit the park and the Library. He put Nibbles, his hamster, into his backpack and they took off on the scooter. Binky took his time, stopping to look into shop windows or pausing to talk to aquaintances he met along the way. Before they went to the park, Nibbles suggested that they check the post office box to see if any prize had arrived from the cereal company yet. Binky was doubtful that any prize would come at all, but he decided to go ahead and check. He parked the scooter in the bike rack out in front of the post office, and the little bell on the door tinkled as they went in. The woman behind the counter greeted them, and Binky recognized her to be one of his mother's friends. She said "Well, Binky, I am so glad you stopped in here today! I happen to have two special packages with your name printed on them!" Binky couldn't believe it when she handed the brown paper-wrapped packages over the counter. He thanked her and ran out the door and jumped on the scooter. Nibbles suggested they go to the park to open them. Binky agreed and within a few minutes they were sitting at a picnic table staring at the boxes. Nibbles began to guess what could be inside them. Maybe a radio was in one of the boxes, or a gum ball dispenser. One package was a large rectangle, the other a small square. Binky told Nibbles to open the smaller package and together they began to tear open the boxes. Nibbles was the first to succeed in opening his box, and he set a brightly colored container in the middle of the picnic table. Binky paused in his efforts to open his box, as he read the words on the smaller box aloud to Nibbles. The label read "Handle with care! Do not expose to extreme heat or cold, keep in a cool, dry place." Confused, he turned the box around to read the other side. In big, red letters were the printed words: "Contents: 500 Brown Ants; 1 Queen Ant; 10 Ant Larvea." Binky stared in disbelief at the package; he had won a box of ants? Nibbles was jumping up and down on the table, urging Binky to open the other box. Binky ripped open the bigger box, and pulled out a bright red, yellow, green and blue plastic Ant Farm. An Ant Farm! He had won an Ant Farm! He had been wanting an Ant Farm ever since he had seen one in a Hobby magazine at the library.
He and Nibbles followed the directions that were written in a little paper booklet that was attached to the box. Soon all of the ants had been installed in their new home. Binky snapped the lid shut and he and Nibbles watched in fascination for several moments as the ants busily began to move dirt around, and burrow along the tunnels.
Binky glanced at his watch and realized it was almost time for Story Hour at the Library. He put the Ant Farm into his backpack and tossed the empty boxes into a trash container. He and Nibbles buzzed along on the scooter and soon arrived at the Library. They dashed in the door and Binky ran over and put his backpack in a corner of the children's book area. He began visiting with the other children as they arrived and soon they were all seated in a circle as the Librarian took her place in the Story Corner. She began reading an exciting story about children that traveled back in time from a mysterious tree house. Binky was very engrossed in the story and Nibbles was resting on his knee. Suddenly Binky realized that the Librarin seemd to be fidgeting and scratching quite a bit. Some of the children sitting in front of him started scratching too. He felt something tickling his tail, and he jumped up and found two little ants on the floor where he had been sitting. Just then a little girl screamed and all the children jumped up and began scratching and running around in circles. Binky ran over to the corner and grabbed his backpack. He reached in and pulled out the Ant Farm only to discover that the little plug in the side had popped out! Ants were crawling all over inside his backpack, and some of them were eating his lunch. He looked up to find the Librarian standing over his shoulder, she was peering at him over the rim of her spectacles and tapping her foot. Binky smiled his most innocent smile, the one that showed his dimples.
The Librarian called Pinky, Binky's mother, to come down to the Library to help decide what to do about Binky's ants. When Pinky arrived she found Binky sobbing behind the water fountain because he had overheard the Librarian say something about calling the exterminator. He felt much better when he saw his mother, she comforted him with a hug. She dried his tears and told him not to worry and then she went over to have a quiet conversation with the Librarian. Pretty soon the Librarian called everyone together and announced that Pinky had a plan to recover all of Binky's ants. She placed a huge bowl of sugared gumdrops on the desk and told the children to each take a handful of gumdrops and then place them around the Library in long lines, all leading back to the Ant Farm which had been placed on the floor in the middle of the Story Corner. The children began grabbing handfulls of gumdrops and running around the library putting them in rows along the floor. Soon the bowl was empty and all of the gum drops had been strategically placed around the Library. The Librarian then announced that the Library would now close for lunch, and that hopefully by the time it re-opened that afternoon, all of the ants would be back in the Ant Farm. Pinky walked home beside Binky as he rode on his scooter. He related how he and Nibbles checked the post office on the way to the Library and how they opened the two packages in the park. When they arrived home, Pinky fixed them a nice lunch and Binky felt much better.
An hour later Binky was on his scooter, zipping towards the Library. He hastily parked it and ran in the door. The Librarian was behind the desk, and Binky saw she had the Ant Farm in front of her. He looked around the Library and didn't see any ants crawling anywhere. He walked over and picked up the Ant Farm and could see all the ants busy once again tunneling and moving dirt. The Librarian smiled at him and said that his mother's plan had worked, there were no loose ants to be found anywhere! Binky was so happy, he and Nibbles started jumping up and down!
As they walked toward the door, the Librarian asked Binky to please take the Ant Farm home, and not bring it to the Library ever again. He promised he would take it right home and leave it there from now on!
Later that evening at dinner, Binky and Nibbles told Twinky all of the details concerning the great ant escape. Pinky was praised for her ingenious gum drop scheme to recover them. It was agreed upon by all that the best place for the Ant Farm was right on the bookcase in the dinning room. There the ants could safely be viewed as they tunneled around inside their colorful home.
