The Money Tree

- a story I wrote when I was 11. The best story I've ever written, in my opinion.

Susan came running back to the house breathless. She gasped out "Tree!" and pointed toward the trails she had been on near their summer house. Mark asked if she could show him the way and Susan only nodded. She walked slowly up the trail and began to recover her breath. She told Mark that she had decided to explore the grounds around the summer house and had followed this trail for about a quarter of a mile, and then there was a little clearing, with a single little tree in the middle. It was a kind of tree the children had never seen before, and it had beautiful flowers on it. They were silvery with golden centers. They brought a bouquet home for their mother. They went there every day until summer was over and it was time to go to school. They went back to the tree for the last time and saw that the tree had seeded over and now had bright green pods. They opened some, and a silver dollar fell out of each pod. "Quick," Mark said, "gather lots of the pods and open them all! It might run out soon and we could be rich!" They did become rich and next summer they went back and got more money. They had enough to get both of them through college. They got an early retirement plan and lived in a mansion in the winter and they always went to the summer house in the summer.