Along the Merry Way....

Stefan from Budapest: Today 10-year old Stefan from Budapest gave the most elaborate excuse for having not done his English homework that I have ever encountered in all my teaching experience. It began with his recounting the story of an epic face-first dive into the snow, which involved a terrible skidding motion that embedded ice into his face; the story next described a cruelly insensitive father, who failed to treat his facial wounds properly; in fact, it sounded as if the father had been trying to permanently scar him by roughly trying to scrape the ice and snow off his face. It must have healed quickly though because Stefan's face appeared as radiantly fresh and earnest as ever under his spiky hair. The terrible tale next involved the loss and mix-up of almost all of his school papers, a disqualified homework assignment that he was forced to redo, and finally a mistaken swap in which he took the wrong person's bag home and left his own behind. With such an exhausting and ...

I told Willie, Hugh, and Matthias that many hundreds of years ago, pirates had come to the house in Combermere, and there was a legend that pirate treasure was hidden somewhere, probably buried deep beneath the house. They were very excited by the idea, and we began to search the house. Hugh and I were looking in the stonework near the fireplace when we saw a bit of charred paper stuck between the stones. I pulled it out and found a dirty piece of paper that was marked with a skull and crossbones. Hugh immediately brought it to Willie, who discerned it to be a map. We followed some of the more legible landmarks down into the basement and deep under the foundations of the house to the spot that was marked with an X. Willie was pretty brave and climbed in head-first on his belly to fit between the floorboards and the house foundations. Hugh opted to guard the rear entrance and watch while Matthias tried to scramble after Willie and I. His diaper was a little too heavy and cumbersome thou...