Armed

In my experience it is true that even if you don't give a boy a toy weapon, he will make one out of something, anything. Cardboard tubes, tree branches, a rubber band and pencil, for example.

Today Sam and I were walking across the UTD campus after his last day of chess camp when he stopped beneath a large tree filled with immature seed pods.

"Wow! These are cool!" he said, referring to the spiky seed pods overhead. And I thought, "How sensitive. How perceptive and appreciative."

Until he said, "I can tear these off and use them as a mace!"