Three friends in Pebble HillIn Pebble Hill there were three ways to keep coins: cash, bonds and stocks. Three friends each had one hundred pretend coins and picked a different way. Nico picked cash. He put his coins in a jar, and the jar still held one hundred years later. Cash is handy and calm, but it grows nothing. Ben picked a stock from Lemon Co., a company cut into slices. A slice cost ten coins, so he bought ten slices and owned a little of Lemon Co. In year one each slice was worth 13 coins, so his slices were worth 130. A rainy summer in year two dropped each slice to 9, so 90. In year three each slice climbed to 14, so 140. Maya picked a bond. The town hall wanted to dig a well and asked its neighbors to lend it coins. Maya lent 100, and the clerk wrote a promise to pay five extra coins a year and return the hundred after three years. A bond is a loan, and the paper is the promise. A promise can still break if the borrower cannot pay, but a careful town keeps its promises, so bonds usually swing less than stocks. None of the friends knew what next year would bring.