Mr. Sneezewort
Once upon a time in a far away land lived a Mr. Sneezewort.
He was a twofaced crook. Actually that was the name given to him by
his neighbours. Mr. Sneezewort was a type of a man who liked pestering
his neighbours. Once when a neighbour, Mr. Cooper, wasn’t looking,
Mr. Sneezewort placed a dung bomb in his kitchen. Poor Mr. Cooper was
astonished when he found his house in ruins and swore revenge on Mr.
Sneezewort because he had an idea that Mr. Sneezewort might have done
it.
Once when Mr. Trottville was chatting with his niece, Mr. Sneezewort
got the chance to nip in from the window and secretly put a little of
itching powder down Mr. Trottville’s neck. Mr. Trottville started
itching like mad and his niece said that if it was his idea of a joke
it was in a very poor taste. Mr. Trottville knew it was the work of
Mr. Sneezewort. These incidents caused many of the unfortunate people
who suffered, to lose their temper and they swore revenge on the “twofaced
crook” said Mr. Goon who like many other people had suffered a
lot. They all went about watching Mr. Sneezewort’s every move.
Once Mr. Sneezewort thought of replacing Mr. Fisher Fish who used to
catch fish with frogspawn. Ugh! But the neighbours who had heard every
thing were horrified and disgusted at the same time. They did not want
this to happen to Mr. Fisher because he was a good man. Honest but poor
he was always very generous. The neighbours warned Mr. Fisher that very
day and together Mr. Fisher and the neighbours thought of a very good
plan. The day everything occurred was like this: Mr. Fisher was strolling
and whistling softly to himself. Mr. Sneezewort thought that this was
a good person to pick a target on. Mr. Fisher started fishing and kept
all the fish he had caught in a basket he had bought.
Whew! Now here is where the plot thickens. Mr. Fisher put the basket
beside him but showed interest in only fishing and nothing else. Mr.
Sneezewort crept out from his hiding place and took out all the fish
from the basket and instead put the frogspawn in it. After over an hour
while Mr. Sneezewort hid in his hiding place wanting to watch the fun,
Mr. Fisher looked into his basket and then said loudly – Yippee!
So many fish. Just a little bit of grass, which I’ll wash. Mr.
Sneezewort came out astonished and so did all the neighbours who had
also been hiding somewhere secretly and watching all the fun.
Mr. Sneezewort said, I don’t get it. Where’s the frogspawn
I put inside the basket and how is it that you have got fish when I
replaced it with Frogspawn? Easy, said the neighbours and Mr. Fisher
together. Simple! A child of three would work it out. I caught all these
fish that you stole yesterday and filled their insides with frogspawn.
Next the frogspawn you bought was rather clumsily looking right? Because
they were filled with fish. And as you may know, Mr. Sneezewort, said
Mr. Fisher addressing him that if frogspawn gets heated it sort of all
disappears. How did you know my plan? Said Mr. Sneezewort looking very
angry.
Easy said the neighbours because we were spying on you to see what other
dirty trick you would think of that’s how we knew this one. Mr.
Sneezewort lowered his head in shame and then said – I’ll
be a good guy. I promise. And he was.
( 4 February 2003 )
