Miriam Morris was in the bath, surrounded by a sea of bobbing plastic boats. Her big sister Chavi was keeping an eye on her.

After a while, Chavi grabbed a big, warm bath towel and held it out to the little girl.

“Time to come out!” she instructed.

Miriam took no notice. Chavi tried again.

“Come out, Miriam.”

To her surprise, Miriam just sat there. This was unusual. After some intensive play, the little girl was usually happy to jump into a nice, fluffy towel.

“Enough playing. Out!” ordered Chavi crisply.

“Can’t,” Miriam replied.

“What! Why on earth not?”

“Cos I gotta hold down my sum-barine so it doesn’t jump up,” explained the little girl. “Moishy told me sum-barines go under the water.”

She lifted her foot to show Chavi the “submarine,” one of her toy boats she’d pinned down under her heel. As soon as she raised her foot, the boat shot straight back up to the surface, with Miriam desperately trying to push it down again.

“It doesn’t stay down,” complained the little girl exasperatedly. “That’s why I had to hold it wiv my leg. I fink it’s broken.”

Chavi hid a smile.

“It’s not broken; it’s made of plastic, and plastic floats.”

“But how can it be that real sum-barines go under the sea? Moishy told me. He even showed me a picture!”

“Well, real submarines have ballast tanks to change buoyancy,” explained Chavi, remembering what she’d learned in school. But Miriam had tuned out.

Eventually, Chavi managed to cajole the disappointed little girl out of the bath. But over the next few days, Miriam could not stop thinking about how to get her “sum-barine” to work properly.

She even persuaded Mommy to stop off with her at Jolly Solly’s for some advice, only to be told by the clown’s mother that he was away in Honolulu on a mitzvah mission, without any telephone reception.

Poor Miriam. The next thing she tried was sticking her boat to the bottom of the kitchen sink with tape. But the tape came unstuck as soon as it got wet.

Chavi was washing dishes at the other sink as the little girl carried out her unsuccessful experiment.

“Oh! Are you washing the milchig dishes, Miriam? Thank you!” she commented.

“I’m not washing up. I’m trying to get my sum-barine to work,” pointed out Miriam.

But Chavi was already scrubbing the next pot.

Chavi had just placed the pot in the drainer, when a loud noise made her jump.

Whoooooooosh!

(Excerpted from Mishpacha Jr., Issue 758)