<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1264" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hello Barbara Richmond - somewhere in Peoria</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>To you I'll give the punch = line:</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"What was the author's = overall message in this story?"</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Think first!</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Ha! Ha! thud........... BTW I = made a print-out of your story and am giving it to Maxim to read - it should = make him laugh! Who was the author?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Michael G (UK) in a fold of the Sussex = Downs and my son Maxim is 6 years old tomorrow. I hope he has more sense than I did = on that runaway piano fiasco. Right now he's doing his violin practice...My wife = Corina did the Open University English course and got a BA with Hons. So stop = thinking and start doing!</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>