“Supposedly, he had a great-great-grandfather who had stolen a pig from a one-legged Gypsy, and she put a curse on him and all his descendants. Stanley and his parents didn’t believe in curses, of course, but whenever anything went wrong, it felt good to be able to blame someone.”
“I had this terrible sneezing cold…”
“Now this neighbor was a pig, and he wasn’t too bright either… I mean, who in his right mind builds a house out of straw?”
“I felt a sneeze coming on. I huffed, snuffed, and I sneezed… and you know what? That whole house fell down.”
“Then Mr. Grumpy and the goat and the calf and the chickens and the sheep and the pig and the dog and the cat and the rabbit and the children all swam to the bank and climbed out to dry in the hot sun.”
“The pig mucked about. The dog teased the cat. The cat chased the rabbit. The rabbit hopped. The children squabbled. The boat tipped…and into the water they fell.”