Title issues, long

Pirates boarded our ship off Tunis and asked for gold. I offered them a riddle instead. It was so hard that the captain sat down to think. His crew joined him. They are still there, I believe, and their beards have grown through the deck and out the hull.

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.

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.

Giants are poor at sums. I met one near Bergen who wished to trade his mountain for three of my buttons. I agreed, then asked him for change. He gave me a valley and two small lakes. Later he came back with a lawyer, but the lawyer was a small one.

Venice sat on dry land until I came to town. The streets.