Orphan pages

Owls are wise only because I tutored them. For a time I ran a night school in a Bavarian oak. Geometry went well. History gave them trouble. My best pupil could recite Latin with its head turned fully backward, and it later served three dukes as a private adviser.

Earthquakes are just the ground getting an itch. In the hills of Persia I took a long rake and scratched the worst of it. The ground let out a low sigh. The shaking stopped at once, and the shah gave me a fine rug that I had to hold down.

Ducks have always trusted me, and this is their mistake. One foggy morning I whistled a tune, and two hundred mallards formed a neat line behind me. I led them into my kitchen and asked them to pick a leader. They argued till noon. While they voted, I quietly set the table.

My uncle grew a turnip so large it had its own weather. Rain fell on the north side. Sheep grazed on the leaves and got lost. I dug for a week and struck a Roman road. We boiled it in a lake, and all of Saxony had supper that night.

Mermaids sing badly, and someone had to tell them. I sailed to the.