Suddenly with a crash, the tower she'd built with Troy fell to the ground.

“Troy! You broke the tower!” Chantal burst into tears.

When Grandpa Jake entered the room, there were Duplo pieces scattered around the room, and Chantal sat sobbing on the floor.

Troy stood with a puzzled look on his face. Around his waist he wore Tristan's play handyman pouch, with a saw, screwdriver, and other tools. In his hand he held a plastic hammer, which he'd used to knock over the tower.

Grandpa Jake stepped between the pieces of Duplo and sat on Tristan's bed. “Troy, do you want to tell me what happened?”

Troy began: “It had to break sometime, Grandpa Jake.”

“But we'd just finished building it,” Chantal sobbed.

“The tower wouldn't have fit in the Duplo bucket, so it would've had to be broken when we put the toys away,” explained Troy. “I made it come down right away, that’s all.”

“I see,” said Grandpa Jake. “I agree with you, Troy, the tower needed to be put away eventually. But you know, there's something important to remember when you take things apart.”

“What’s that?” asked Troy.

“That there's a time for it. You see, you and Chantal had just finished building the tower. Maybe Chantal wanted to play with it before you put it away. Did you think about that?”

Troy shook his head and looked at the ground. “I didn't mean to break it in a bad way,” he said.

“I know, and I'm not upset at you. You can remember this lesson for next time, though, just like Crusher and Breaker did. …”

Crew and Co. had been assigned to tear down an old house that was no longer safe to live in and then build a new one in its place. Old Demolition Ball had been at work for several hours. Skillfully he swung his large iron ball at the walls and brought them to the ground, sometimes in large pieces, other times in small pieces. Now that his part of the work was done, Demolition Ball trundled away to take a break.

As Demolition Ball left, Crusher and Breaker made their way to the site. Mr. Oversite, the foreman for Crew and Co., explained what they needed to do. “Some of these pieces of wall and stone are too large to load onto the trucks, so I need you two to make them smaller. Dozer and Dee will be here soon to take them to the dump site. Thanks, boys.”

“We’re on it!” said Crusher and Breaker, as Mr. Oversite walked away.

To do his job, Crusher would use his large teeth to break the pieces of concrete, while Breaker would drill into the pieces until they broke.

“Why do we always get such small jobs, Crusher?” asked Breaker. “I wish they'd give us some real work.”

“I know,” grumbled Crusher. “Everyone else gets to work all the time, and we sit around getting bored.”

“Maybe, after we finish this job, we can look around and see what else we can do.”

“Good idea. We'd better start working, though. I see Dozer and Dee coming this way.”

The sound of Breaker's loud drill could be heard all over the work site, along with the crunching of Crusher's teeth. Before long, their job was done.

“We’ll take it from here,” Dee told the two brothers. “Thanks for your help.”

“We’ll take it from here,” repeated Crusher in a mocking whisper. “I don’t like it when they tell us that. All the building vehicles think they’re better than us.”

“Let’s show the rest of Crew and Co. that we’re useful, too,” Crusher suggested.

“Yes. We're a good crusher and breaker team. So what if we can't build?”

The two brothers trundled around the rest of the site, looking for something that they could tear down.

“What about this wall?” Breaker asked Crusher, pointing to a low-standing wall that ran around the back of the house.

“Good idea,” agreed Crusher. “We'll show the rest of them that we're just as good as they are.”

With a few drills and a few crunches, a portion of the wall fell down. Crusher and Breaker stood proudly admiring their work.

“Oh no!” cried Little Digger. “I just finished clearing the rubble … Oh dear, the wall is broken!”

“We were working on the wall,” said Crusher.

“But it wasn't supposed to be broken!” Digger exclaimed. “Mr. Oversite asked me to make sure that all the rubble was cleared from around it, as he didn't want it to be broken. Now we're going to have to build it up again.”

Crusher and Breaker looked sadly at the ground.

“Is there a problem?” Demolition Ball asked. Seeing the broken wall, he understood what had happened.

“We thought we were helping,” Breaker explained.

“I see,” Demolition Ball said. “But sometimes it's better not to work rather than doing the wrong thing. You have a specific job—tearing things down—like I do, but we can't tear down everything; otherwise, we end up destroying the work that others have spent a long time building.”

“We're sorry,” Crusher said.

“Well, I did the same thing when I was younger,” said Demolition Ball, “only I made a much bigger mess, and it took a lot longer to fix.

“You're both needed, and even though you think maybe you're not used as much as some of the other construction vehicles, you're still part of the team. Everyone has a part to play, and you play an important part, too.”

“We'll remember this lesson,” Breaker said. “And we're sorry about the wall, Digger.”

“That's okay,” said Digger. “It can be fixed.”

“We should tell Mr. Oversite what happened,” Crusher said. “Then he can help us fix it.”

“I'm sure he'll understand,” said Demolition Ball.

The two brothers went to see Mr. Oversite and explained all that'd happened. He was understanding and was glad that they'd learned a good lesson.

“Maybe I can find some more work for you two boys to do, so you can feel more useful,” Mr. Oversite suggested. “I’m sorry I haven’t had so much for you to do.”

“That’s okay,” Crusher said. “And we’d be happy to help out wherever we can.”

“Chantal, I’ll build the tower for you again, if you want,” Troy offered. “I’m sorry I made you sad earlier.”

“I forgive you,” she said. “And I’ll help you build it again. I like to build towers!”

“You worked that out nicely,” Grandpa Jake said. “I’m proud of you both.”

Troy and Chantal gathered the scattered Duplo pieces and rebuilt the tower, only this time it was bigger and better.

Moral: There's a time to build and there's a time to break down. If you're not sure what's the right thing to do at the time, ask your parents or teachers.