Prefix Reel Machine

In the back of the shed, under an old tarp, Little Thunder found a strange wooden machine with two spinning reels and a big lever.

"What is it?" he asked.

Suzy brushed off the dust. "It's an old word machine! The first reel has prefixes. The second reel has root words."

"What's a prefix?" asked Little Thunder.

"A little word part you stick on the front," said Spike. "It changes the meaning."

Little Thunder pulled the lever. Clatter, clatter, click. The first reel stopped on pre. The second stopped on heat.

"Preheat," read Suzy. "Pre means before. So preheat means heat before. Like warming the oven before you bake."

Little Thunder pulled again. Mis and place.

"Misplace," said Spike. "Mis means wrongly. Put something in the wrong place."

"Like when you misplaced your hat yesterday," said Suzy.

"It was on my head," admitted Little Thunder.

He pulled once more. Semi and circle.

"Semi means half," said Suzy. "A semicircle is half a circle."

Little Thunder drew one in the dust with his hoof. "Like a rainbow!"

Then the machine stuck. The reels showed un and happy.

"Unhappy," said Spike. "Un means not."

Little Thunder frowned. "I don't want the machine to be unhappy." He gave it a gentle nudge. Clatter, click. The first reel moved to re.

"Re means again," said Suzy.

They looked at the reels together. Re and happy. "That's not a real word," laughed Little Thunder, "but I like it. Rehappy. Happy again."

They oiled the reels until the machine spun smoothly. Then they gave it a new name, painted on a board: Prefix Reel Machine. Freshly unbroken.