"Because it is made of tiny bits of rock, and the rocks are white too," he answered, and he found a little white rock and showed it to her.
"Are there other colors too?" Susan asked.
"There are in other places," her dad explained. "It depends on what kinds of rocks their sand is made from. Some places have black sand, or even yellow or pink sand, but I haven't seen them."
Susan decided that she wanted to see them. When they got home from the beach she looked at her globe. She found a place where a lot of colors all met in one corner, right next to an ocean. That would be the best place.
The next morning she tied a basket to a big balloon, which she filled with warm sunshine to make it float. Then she packed sandwiches and lemonade for herself, and snacks for her cat, and they set off.
As they sailed over each country, Susan checked it off on her map, until at last they came to the corner where all the colors met. Susan landed the balloon.
There was a beach, and the sand was in all colors, just as she knew it would be. In some places, the sand was all the colors mixed together, and in other places they were in separate bands, like a rainbow.
The children playing on the beach had sets of pails of different colors, which they used to gather up sand, red into a red pail, yellow into a yellow pail, and all the rest. When they had all the colors they wanted, they would use them to draw pictures.
Susand had brought her own set of pails, so she was able to join them. She drew a flower, and then she drew her cat, and then a fish. Then she drew a rainbow, and at the end of it she put a pot of gold, and dancing around it a ring of leprechauns.
When the leprechauns saw Susan, they asked her to dance with them. Once Susan stepped into their picture, the leprechauns and the rainbow and the pot of gold all became real. They danced until everyone was tired.
"How did you come here?" the leprechauns asked Susan, when they all stopped dancing. She showed them her balloon full of warm sunshine.
"It won't stay warm much longer," they reminded her. Susan saw that they were right; the sun was getting low in the sky, and she would have to start for home.
Susan said goodbye to the leprechauns, picked up her cat, stepped back out of the drawing, and put everything back in the basket.
Then she and her cat flew home, arriving just in time for dinner.
After dinner, Susan showed her Dad the sand she had brought home in her pails, and they decided to draw a picture. Picture of what??