________________________________________________________________________________
/ Harris had the beefstead pie between his knees, and was carving it, and George \
| and I were waiting with our plates ready. |
| "Have you got a spoon there?" says Harris; "I want a spoon to help |
| the gravy with." |
| The hamper was close behind us, and George and I both turned round to |
| reach one out. We were not five seconds getting it. When we looked round |
| again, Harris and the pie were gone! |
| It was a wide, open field. There was not a tree or a bit of hedge for |
| hundreds of yards. He could not have tumbled into the river, because we were |
| on the water side of him, and he would have had to climb over us to do it. |
| George and I gazed all about. Then we gazed at each other. |
| "Has he been snatched up to heaven?" I queried. |
| "They'd hardly have taken the pie, too," said George. |
| There seemed weight in this objection, and we discarded the heavenly |
| theory. |
| "I suppose the truth of the matter is," suggested George, descending |
| to the commonplace and practicable, "that there has been an earthquake." |
| And then he added, with a touch of sadness in his voice: "I wish he |
| hadn't been carving that pie." |
\ -- Jerome K. Jerome, "Three Men In A Boat" /
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||
According to the Fact Sphere: "Edmund Hilary, the first person to climb Mt. Everest, did so accidentally, while chasing a bird."
In the spirit of William Shakespeare: Thou art a reeky, ill-nurtured harpy.