The Buck Starts Here

Whit gives Jared, Ashley, and Nathaniel twenty-five dollars apiece for an experiment. Over the next two weeks, each child must use the money constructively and try to build on what has been given. Those who do may keep the money; anyone who does not must return it. Whit leaves the choice of how to use it entirely to them.

Nathaniel immediately imagines enormous projects and appoints Mandy as his secretary, even though his tiny budget cannot support any of his grand ideas. Inspiration arrives when he tastes one of her homemade muffins. Because Mandy believes the recipe came from her grandmother and cannot be bought in stores, Nathaniel proposes selling the muffins. Mandy negotiates an equal partnership, and their business begins attracting eager customers.

Ashley invests in tools and advertises a bicycle repair service. While working on a customer's bike, she shows him a homemade device that can launch a rolled-up sock. He wants several for a playful mud war between First Street and Third Street, and soon children from both sides are paying Ashley to equip their bicycles. Her profits grow along with her workload.

Jared takes a very different approach. When Whit offers him the peanut-butter-and-banana ice cream he has often requested, Jared suspects a trap designed to make him spend his money. A newspaper advertisement for binoculars costing almost exactly twenty-five dollars convinces him that Mandy, Whit, and the store owner are all conspiring against him. Even his mother's innocent attempt to pick up his fallen wallet becomes proof that Whit is trying to steal the cash.

Determined to outwit everyone, Jared locks the money in a lunchbox and buries it behind the restrooms at McAlister Park. When workers later dig up the area to repair a water-main break, his suspicion grows. He assumes that Whit has recruited the city itself to hunt for his hidden treasure.

Meanwhile, Nathaniel and Mandy's successful muffin stand suddenly loses customers to Pete's cheaper muffins. Nathaniel angrily assumes that Pete has stolen their secret recipe, but a note beside the old recipe leads them to a popular cookbook. Mandy's grandmother had copied the recipe rather than created it. Once everyone else discovers the same source, competitors flood the school and the business collapses. Nathaniel has already spent most of the profits baking more inventory that he cannot sell.

Ashley's business also runs into trouble. After installing a dozen sock shooters just before the mud war, she discovers one unused nut. The shooters are fine, but she remembers repairing Roy's bicycle that morning and realizes she forgot to secure his rear wheel. Although Roy is fighting for the opposing street and both sides pelt her with mud, Ashley races across the battlefield to warn him. She arrives too late to prevent a fall. Roy is not seriously hurt, but Ashley must use her profits to help pay his medical bill.

At the end of the two weeks, all three report to Whit. Nathaniel returns his original money because his muffin business failed. Ashley has only twelve dollars left after accepting responsibility for Roy's accident and promises to repay the rest. Jared arrives covered in mud after spending hours digging, proudly pries open his lunchbox, and announces that he has successfully protected every dollar from Whit's supposed schemes.

Whit explains that Nathaniel and Ashley have fulfilled the assignment. Their businesses did not succeed as they hoped, but they used their resources, took worthwhile action, and learned lessons that can help them in the future. They may keep their original money. Jared must surrender his because hiding it accomplished nothing. Saving would have been constructive if he had at least placed the money where it could earn interest, but burying it only kept it idle.

The experiment teaches the children that God expects people to use what He has entrusted to them for His glory. Nathaniel and Ashley eagerly begin combining their remaining ideas, proposing a battle with Ashley's launchers and the unsold muffins. As Whit realizes what their new burst of enterprise may unleash, the two young partners are already planning their next venture.