THE BIG ORANGE THING

That's a nice cow, Charlie,"" the teacher had said about the best picture of a duck he had ever drawn, so Charlie, to feel better, sets to building--with orange boards and orange nails, orange sticks and an Orange crate--a Big Orange Thing. ""Doesn't (it) do anything?"" asks friend Eddy. ""It talks,"" Charlie decides. And, provided with an orange megaphone mouth, it does: ""I'm hungry."" Of course ""there was just one thing a Big Orange Thing was sure to like."" And so it goes. . . to school the next day, bowing gallantly to Miss Kramer, wowing the children when it eats ""74 oranges for lunch without spitting out the seeds,"" allowing Charlie--still a dud at drawing--to feel very proud. This is one of those nonchalant little nothings that succeeds because it doesn't try too hard--just the Thing for losers like Charlie.