"Tomorrow is Show and Tell," Miss Barlow announced to the class. "Each of you may bring one special item from home to show the rest of the class and tell us about it."

When the school day ended, Anna and Mary Lou walked to Anna's house together. By now they knew the way, and it was Mary Lou's turn to go to Anna's to play.

"I'm gonna bring a candy necklace to show everyone," said Mary Lou. "We just got them in our store, and you can wear them and eat them, too!"

"I don't know what I'm gonna bring," said Anna. "I guess I could bring Simon, 'cept he wriggles around too much, and besides, he might mess his diaper."

Mary Lou giggled.

Later, while the family was eating dinner, Anna brought the subject up.

"Why don't you tell them about your Tree of Life?" Anton suggested. "You know how we take a picture of it every year on your birthday. That is something special which many of your classmates might not have heard about."

"A tree?" Anna wrinkled her nose. "Do you think they'd be interested in that? I mean, everybody has trees in their yard!"

"But this is a special tree," Anton pointed out. "I planted it when you were born, so it's exactly as old as you are."

"All right," Anna conceded. She hoped her classmates wouldn't laugh at her for bringing a picture of a tree for Show and Tell.

The next morning, Anna met up with Mary Lou on the way to school. Mary Lou handed her a package with a necklace inside.

"It's candy," Mary Lou said. "You'd better eat it before we get to school, or the other kids will want one, too."

"But I don't want to eat it - it's too pretty!" Anna took the necklace out of its package and put it around her neck. Then she showed her photograph to Mary Lou.

"It's my Tree of Life," she said. "Daddy planted it when I was born, so it's the same age as me."

"Really?" Mary Lou gazed at the photograph. "That's so nice! I wish I had a Tree of Life, too."

By now they'd reached the school, so they went inside. Show and Tell turned out to be right after the pledge of allegiance and the morning prayer. Anna waited patiently as Mark Peterson told the class about his ant farm. He was almost finished when suddenly, a shrill noise rang out, startling all the children. Betty Hanson, who sat in front of Mary Lou, started to cry.

"Fire drill, children," Miss Barlow told the class. "Let's line up quietly and orderly, just like we do at lunchtime." The class quickly formed a line, and Miss Barlow led them out the door, down the hall, and outside into the sunshine. Anna looked around and saw that all the other classes were outside, too. She waved to Laura, and Laura waved back.

Miss Barlow called the roll to make sure all the children were there.

"Now we may proceed cautiously back inside," she said. By now, Betty had stopped crying and looked on with the others. "This was just a fire drill, not a real fire. It was just for practice, to make sure that, just in case there ever is a real fire, we'll all know what to do."

Distracted by the fire drill, Anna forgot all about Show and Tell until everyone was back inside.

"Whose turn was it?" Miss Barlow asked. "You'd just told us about your ant farm, hadn't you, Mark? It's Anna's turn, then."

But what was I going to talk about? Anna wondered. Oh yeah! My Tree of Life.

She took the photograph out of her desk and walked to the front of the class with it.

"This is a picture of my Tree of Life." She held it up for everyone to see, then handed it to Charlie Anderson in front so he could pass it around to the others. "My Daddy planted it when I was born, so it's as old as me. He grew it from apple seeds my Opa brought from Germany."

A low murmur of interest rumbled through the classroom.

"Why don't you tell us a little about that, Anna?" Miss Barlow gently prompted.

"Germany is a country on the other side of the ocean. You can't drive there. You have to take a boat or an airplane. It's where my Opa and Oma live, and where my Daddy grew up."

"Thank you, Anna," said Miss Barlow. "You may return to your seat. Come on up, Susie."

Susie Smith, who sat behind Anna, came to the front with her nut cracker while the class applauded for Anna.

Anna went to play at Mary Lou's that afternoon, and for dinner, Patty made franks and beans. Anna cleaned her plate and asked for a second helping.

That night, she fell asleep and had a scary dream. She was sitting at her desk in school, watching helplessly as smoke seeped into the room around the edges of the door. She couldn't breathe and was so frightened she let out a yell.

Patty was there right away, shaking her awake and asking her what was wrong.

"I had a bad dream, Mommy," Anna sniffled. "I was in school and a fire started!"

"It's all right, sweetheart." Patty held Anna close, rocking her gently. "It was just a dream. Everything's all right."

"But I'm scared to go back to sleep! What if I have the dream again?"

"How about if I bring you a nice warm glass of milk and tell you about something that frightened me when I was a little girl?"

Anna smiled. Patty went to the kitchen and then returned with the milk.

"One day I was walking home from school, and a big dog chased me," she began. "It belonged to out neighbor and had accidentally got loose. I was so scared! I ran as fast as I could, and then I heard our neighbor yelling at the dog and telling it to go back home.

"'Did he scare you, little girl?' he asked me. I was too shaken up to say anything, so I nodded. 'I'm sorry,' he said. 'Here's a nickel. Buy yourself a lollipop.'"

"I'm sure glad the dog didn't get you!" said Anna.

"So am I," said Patty. "In the end, everything was OK, and it will be for you, too."

"I feel better now, Mommy." Anna finished the milk and handed the glass back to Patty.

"I'm glad." Patty tucked Anna in again and kissed her cheek. "Go back to sleep, now."