Hawkins Hollow Nursery Rhymes
Moon Dial Garden Bell
Child-facing question: When two helpful signs disagree, can feeling—not size—show which small thing needs protection first? Dominant anchor: Three tiny objects—soft moss, a brave berry cap, and a welcoming bell bead—are arranged by feeling, then compared against the blackberry arch’s narrow gap. Cast: Austin Turtle, Alice Mole, and Lillian. Lillian is premise-required and makes the final destination choice. Zylar was considered as available, but adding a fourth speaker would weaken the compressed dialogue form and crowd the three-object pattern.
Rhyme
The Moon Dial’s Other Ending
Austin: “The loft pulley’s hidden. Shall we wait for its show?”
Alice: “The moon dial says garden bell.”
Lillian: “Its woven arrow says blackberry. Which way do we go?”
At blackberry arch, the thorn gap held tight.
The pale dial pointed left; its arrow pointed right.
Austin: “Largest first?”
Alice: “That would measure size.”
Lillian: “Let feelings make the order our hands recognize.”
Soft moss meant comfort and rested in place.
A berry cap meant courage and followed with grace.
A bell bead meant welcome and waited as third.
All three: “Soft, brave, welcome”—a three-feeling word.
Austin: “The arch blocks the basket.”
Alice: “Then don’t push through.”
Lillian: “Let the smallest safe opening tell what to do.”
They held moss, cap, and bead beside the thorny space.
Only the soft moss matched its narrowest place.
Alice tucked moss round one small nest below;
The arch became their measure for what must stay slow.
Back at garden bell corner, the dial’s signals met:
The moon-mark faced the bell; the woven arrow shifted yet.
Austin: “Expected stage?”
Alice: “Not tonight.”
Lillian: “Follow the gentler path the protected nest made right.”
Dew showed one changed curve past the garden bell,
Not toward the stage they had expected so well.
It ended at a low fern shelter, close and small—
Where the bell bead welcomed the nest without a call.
About This Rhyme
Performance style: Spoken tiny dialogue poem with three-object ordering gestures.
Estimated spoken length: About 85 seconds.
Ways to Join In
- Touch heart for comfort, shoulders for courage, and open both palms for welcome.
- Arrange three ordinary objects by the feeling they suggest, not by size; children may point, speak, gesture, or watch.
- Use two hands pointing in opposite directions for the contradictory signals, then bring them together at “the dial’s signals met.”