Mr. Calabria helped Josh and me make three coloring machines.
Josh's little sister, Jenny, helped too.
So did their dog, Bunch.
He picked up all the pieces of wood we dropped on the floor.
"This is the best invention in the world!" Josh told me.
Josh always says things like that.
He's the best friend in the world.
"I sure hope these coloring machines work," said Jenny, sneezing.
Everything makes Jenny sneeze, especially wood scraps and dust.
Even Josh's hamster, Sparky, makes Jenny sneeze.
"I'm going to bring the coloring machines to school tomorrow," I said.
"Wait until the other kids see them!"
"You'll be the most famous kid in school!" said Josh.
"Ah-choo!" Jenny sneezed.
The next day I took my coloring machines to school with me.
Mrs. Romano was very impressed with my invention.
"What a creative idea, Iggy!" she said.
"Our hands will never get tired from coloring again!" said Jake.
"Even when we have to color Asia," said Ruby.
Everyone laughed, remembering how long it had taken to color Asia.
Molly, Ruby, and Evan volunteered to try out my new invention.
I showed them how to tape their crayons inside the round part of the machine.
"Move the machine around so the crayon colors," I explained.
"Let the machine do all the work!"
Evan started filling in North America with blue.
"This is really hard, Iggy,"
he said as he moved the automatic coloring machine around.
Ruby frowned. "It's even harder than coloring by hand!"
"Well, at least your hand doesn't get tired," I pointed out.
"Look, my crayon broke!" Ruby said with dismay.
"Mine did too!" said Evan.
Molly looked at me.
"Iggy, this is a brilliant invention," she said.
I grinned proudly. "Really?"
"Yes," said Molly. "But there's only one problem."
"What's that?" I asked.
"It doesn't work!" said Molly.
I hated to admit it.
But Molly was right.
That day when I got home from school, I felt really bad.
My coloring machine was a big failure.
I threw the machines in the back of my bedroom closet.
I didn't want to ever see them again.
"Mom! Iggy threw his invention junk in my half of the closet!" yelled Tate.
"Boys, please be quiet!" called Mom.
"I'm talking on the telephone!"
I lay down on my bed to think.
I wished I could think of a really wonderful new invention—one that actually worked.
There was a knock on the apartment door.
It was Molly.
"Iggy, Caswell has disappeared again!" she cried.
Caswell is Molly's little brother.
He loves to go exploring in our old apartment building.
He likes to look for hidden treasure, but sometimes he gets lost.
Once we found him in the basement.
Another time we found him on the roof.
I couldn't imagine who would hide a treasure on the roof!
Everyone helped look for Caswell, except for Mom, who was still on the phone.
"Caswell, where are you?" we called.
"Caswell, you come here right this minute!" ordered Molly.
"Ruff, ruff!" barked Bunch.
But there was no sign of Caswell.
"Caswell! Caswell, come back!" we shouted.
We looked in the basement and up on the roof.
We even looked in our tiny backyard, but all we saw was a cat.
She was wearing a bell around her neck that tinkled whenever she walked.
That was when I got my next brilliant idea!
It would help us find Caswell whenever he got lost.
It was the best idea I'd ever had.
But first we needed to find Caswell!