Tim the Roman Soldier

A very brief story about a boy named Tim in the Roman army

          Many years ago, a young boy named Tim was chosen to be a Roman soldier. Tim did not want to be a soldier, but he told himself: “That didn’t go my way, but it’s ok. I can still have a good day.” And with that thought, he marched off with the legion.

          One day while Tim was marching with his legion, the leader turned left instead of right. Then, Tim’s whole legion fell into a river. It’s a good thing the soldiers weren’t wearing their armor. They jumped out of the river and said: “That didn’t go our way, but it’s ok. We can still have a good day.” And so, they laid in the sand and let the warmth of the sun dry them off.

          That night as Tim sat in his tent, he lit his oil lamp. He wrote a note on a page of papyrus because he wanted to tell him mom about falling in the river. He made a spelling mistake and decide he should erase that word. Sadly, he dropped his note onto his oil lamp and it caught fire with a bright blaze. Tim put out the fire and said: “that didn’t go my way, but it’s ok. I can still have a good day.” And he picked up the letter he had written to his sister and wrote: “please tell mom all about it.”

          The next day, the Legion officer ordered the soldiers to turn right instead of left, and they got lost in the forest. Tim looked around the dark space and told the soldiers to go North. He pointed them in the right direction. Then Tim said the soldiers should turn left because he knew they had gotten confused in the woods. Their captain said turn right, so the soldiers turned left and got to the road. Their captain hung his head low, but then jumped up and declared: “That didn’t go my way, but it’s ok. I can still have a good day.” And the Captain made Tim his navigator.

          With Tim to help him navigate, the Captain of the Legion led his soldiers straight to Rome. There they had a fine feast with lemon, mint, and spice. Tim wanted to try the nice blue cheese, but it was stolen by a pack of hungry mice. Tim watched the cheese disappear around the corner and said: “That didn’t go my way, but it’s ok. I can still have a good day,” as he took a cube of sugar and a bunch of grapes.

          Even with the feast, Tim was a little sad in Rome. He was very far from home. He missed the warm winds of the Greek Islands and going on a hunt with his dad. So, when the Captain announced the legion was going South to Germany, Tim not only said “that’s not the way to Germany, sir,” he also said “That didn’t go my way, but it’s ok. I can still have a good day.” He ate the last grape and told his friend Phil “I hear they play nice tunes along the rivers in Germany. I just hope the Captain doesn’t get us lost in the forest of Spain instead.”

          With Tim as his navigator, the Captain led his legion North to Germany. They stayed on the roads and out of the forests and rivers. They turned left at all the right lefts and right at all the right rights. They heard the German bands play merry tunes late into the night. They saw the fires blaze in German town squares. Tim missed home but he said to himself “it didn’t go my way, but it’s ok, I’m still having good days” and he sat down to a large chunk of cheese that the mice had missed.

          When Tim was told he should go back to Greece, he was happy and sad at the same time. He told his friend Phil “It finally went my way, and that’s ok, we can all still have good days.” Phil was sad to see Tim walk the road to the South and East, but he had learned one thing: Don’t go the Captain's way, it’s probably not ok, go the other way and you will probably have a better day.

Author's Note

I wrote this for my son. First, he has trouble accepting when things don't go his way, so that is the reason for the repetitive saying. Second, I used many of his second-grade spelling words, and much of the story is built around including those words.