responsibility
— A 12-year-old searches frantically for her free-roaming cat Comet, posts flyers around the neighborhood, and finally reunites with him after a neighbor rescues him from a rooftop light well.
— A newspaper delivery boy wrestles with his conscience on a brutally cold morning, ultimately choosing duty over comfort after reading about Andrew Carnegie.
— A young Egyptian girl yearns to help build Pharaoh Cheops' pyramid while managing household duties and missing her parents, who return unexpectedly at story's end.
— A boy saves his friend from an oncoming train after the friend becomes disoriented from a fall, but the rescue happens so fast he can barely process it.
— After her father's death, a girl moves repeatedly with her family until discovering abandoned baby mice in their new backyard gives her purpose and healing.
— A magnificent buck stands guard at forest's edge, sensing danger, then battles a hungry cougar to protect the sleeping does and fawns.
— A girl finds an abandoned black lab in the woods with a note asking someone to care for him, then encounters him a year later, happy with a new family.
— An osprey hunts for fish to feed his mate and chicks, navigating marsh winds and the constant threat of eagles to provide for his family.
— A girl discovers through blocked-out papers with one word visible—PREGNANT—that she'll become a big sister, processing excitement and new responsibility.
— A sparrow flees a hunting hawk through forest branches in a desperate chase, then the perspective shifts to reveal the hawk's necessity of feeding its young.