The Button Old Jack's Boat

Hello, there. How are you today?

Salty and I have a tale or two to tell you about this beach

and the rockpools

and all the magical things that have happened here.

# Come with me, we're off to the sea

# To where I used to play

# Looking back when I was a boy and the fun we had each day

# Over the cobbles and through the streets

# Playing in the sun

# Friends to meet with games and treats

# Adventures just begun

# Stories from a magical world Washed in by the sea

# Meet the rockpool creatures there It's amazing what you see

# Looking back when I was a boy

# Shrimps and starfish Crabs and snails

# In twinkly Rockpool Tales

Ha-ha-ha-ha!

# Those lovely Rockpool Tales. #

TOOT!

Oh, hello! Ha-ha! Do you know what?

This little cupboard has seen better days.

Look! You can look straight through it.

Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Oh! Do you know?

I keep all my special bits and bobs in here.

Now, this tin, this has got buttons in it. It's my button tin. Yes.

Oh, look at this! Salty, look what I've found. Look at this!

You see that little red button?

Oh-ho! Now, that's got a story to tell, haven't you? Yes.

Yes, it all happened when I was a boy

in a twinkly time long, long ago.

Ha-ha!

I used to run down to the beach as often as I could.

Meeting up with my best friends, Little Ernie and Little Sailor Sue.

What are you doing?

One day, we were playing pirates

and finding pebbles and shells in the sand,

and pretending they were jewels from a pirate's treasure chest.

Ha-ha-ha!

-There'll be jewels in the rockpools!

-Let's go and look for treasure!

But Sue stopped in her tracks.

Oh, no! Look at the buttons on my new cardigan! The middle one's gone!

And surely enough, it had.

Sue decided to retrace her footsteps

to see if she could find her button.

Go and explore the rockpools, I'll meet you here later.

So Ernie and I scrambled off in search of jewels

washed into the rockpools by the sea.

And as we gazed deep down into the glittery waters,

a magical world appeared before our eyes.

On this particular day, Belinda the Blenny

saw something very colourful

and very unusual stuck between the rocks.

It was red and round and flat.

And Belinda thought it was beautiful.

With a tug and a heave, she managed to wiggle it out.

And then, very carefully, she carried it all the way home.

As she swam home, she passed Andrew the Anemone.

"Morning, Belinda", he said. "What have you got there?"

"I don't know", said Belinda,

"but it's very lovely and I need to get it home".

Andrew looked at it very carefully.

"I think it's a button from the big world outside."

"Well" she said, "I need to put my button in a safe place."

"Oh, really?" said Andrew.

"Couldn't we play with it and whizz it around like a saucer?"

"No," said Belinda, hurriedly. "It's too precious.

"I must put it in a safe place." And she rushed off.

Yes, you know all about safe places, don't you, Salty?

That's where you put your tennis balls, isn't it?

Yeah, anyway, Belinda's safe place

was a little cupboard on the wall of her home.

And she put the button very carefully inside

and closed the door.

"There!", she said to herself, "nice and safe."

Then she went outside to look at the pretty flowers

that bloomed around her home on the rocky ridge.

After a while, she heard a shout. "Hiya, Belinda!"

It was her friend, Sally the Starfish. She'd come to play.

Belinda was very keen to show Sally her lovely red button,

so she asked her inside and opened the door to her cupboard.

"My button", she said, proudly.

Sally peered inside the cupboard

and then she looked at Belinda

and then she peered inside the cupboard again.

"But there's nothing there", said Sally.

Belinda looked inside, and it was true.

Her red button had disappeared.

Well, as you can imagine, Belinda was very, very upset.

"I really loved that button", she said.

"How could it have disappeared like that?"

"Never mind", said Sally,

"I've got just the thing to make everything better."

And with that, she dashed next door to her own home in the rocks

and brought out a bright, shiny, red button.

"Look", she said, happily,

"I have one, too. Come and play with mine."

Well, Sally and Belinda whizzed the button around for ages.

One of Sally's whizzes whizzed the button so high

that it flew out of the rockpool,

before falling back with a splash.

"I love this game", laughed Belinda.

Well, they played and they played until they felt tired,

and they agreed it was time to go home.

Sally took her red button back to her cosy home

and she popped it in her cupboard.

Belinda, with a sad little sigh, went home with nothing,

except the memory of what fun she'd had playing with Sally.

Inside, Belinda went over to her little cupboard.

She missed her button.

She opened the door to have one last look at the space

where the button should be, and...

there it was, right where she'd left it.

The red button was back in her cupboard.

Now, how did that happen, Salty, eh?

Well, Belinda had no idea, but she was so happy to see it again

that she snatched it out of the cupboard

and hurried next door to Sally's house to tell her.

"Sally? Sally? Look, my red button's back!"

"That's amazing", laughed Sally. "Now we've got two buttons.

"Let me get mine."

Sally dashed over to her cupboard on the wall and opened it.

And, do you know? The button was gone.

Sally could not believe her eyes.

"But I put it here after we finished our game", she cried.

Belinda and Sally didn't understand what was going on.

"Hm", said Belinda, "I'm going to put my button back in a safe place.

"There are too many disappearing buttons today."

And she rushed home.

Sally went back over to her cupboard to see if, by some chance,

she'd missed the red button.

She opened the door and,

to her astonishment, what did she see?

It was Belinda, holding the red button.

"Belinda", said Sally.

"Sally", said Belinda.

They stared at each other from either side of the cupboard

for a moment or two.

They blinked, and then, slowly...

Ha-ha-ha-ha!

..slowly, they realised what was going on.

Did you guess?

Yes!

"I think the back of my cupboard is the door to your cupboard",

said Sally, laughing.

"I think the back of my cupboard

"is the door to your cupboard", laughed Belinda.

"That's because we live next door to each other", smiled Sally.

That also meant that there had only ever been one cupboard

and one red button.

"I think because we're the best of friends", said Belinda,

"and we share a cupboard, we could also share the red button.

"In fact, we could be button buddies!"

And then they rushed outside to play together

in the still waters of the rockpool for the rest of the day.

Friends and button buddies forever.

I've looked everywhere we've been and I can't find my button.

Sue gazed into the rockpool, looking glum.

But there, twinkling in the water was a little red button.

Sue's missing button.

-There it is!

-I'm sure it wasn't there before.

"Rockpools are magical places, Jack", Ernie smiled.

-Sue fished the button out with a cheer.

-Hooray!

We all got up and ran back to Sue's house

so that she could sew her button back on,

and we could eat her mum's cake.

Oh! It was the best in Staithes.

Yeah.

And then the tide came in

and covered the rockpool like a great seaweedy blanket.

Hm-hm-hm!

There we are, there we are. Ha!

What do you think, eh? Hee-hee-hee!

Perfect place for a red button, isn't it, Salty, eh?

Why don't you join us for some more Rockpool Tales next time? Hm!

Goodbye!