TK Earns Pennies

JT had been spending a lot of time that summer with his Father. This was the summer before I lost him. So TK was alone at the work site quite a bit. There was one memorable day when our six year old was bored and wanted something to do. It wasn't safe playing around the log pile, but it was very tempting for him. I needed to keep him occupied away from it. I suggested he pick up paper and trash. He wanted to know how much I would pay him. There were a lot of wrappers from his Father's Swisher Sweet Cigars and those horrid plastic tips laying around. Plus the usual construction clutter. Empty boxes from spikes, weather strips, etc. were laying around. I told TK we'd give him a penny for each piece of trash he picked up. So TK took a bucket and I could hear him counting out loud. Occasionally the child would yell out, "What comes after ...." The numbers were getting quite big. I couldn't always see him, but he made sure we heard every number. Curious, I found a window opening where I could see him. There was TK picking up paper and tearing it into as many pieces as he could and counting each piece as it fell into his bucket. I made his Father pay for every one. At 6 years old, if he was smart enough to figure out how to earn more, he deserved it.