*Drops off another present for Erin... The smaller flatter parcel from Uncle D contains a copy of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, the jacket's a bit dusty in spite of cleaning it off. The bigger box from Count and Ed holds a new tea kettle for Erin's collection. It features a red outlined pentagram encasing a perfect Irish four-leafed shamrock in emerald enamelling in the center. *Count attached a little SST signpost banner to the handle, the banner sporting the 40th logo.
Happy birthday once again to a true MC friend.
Nice, nice - many thanks, Ed.
Nora: (reading SH book) "She gasped, 'It was the band...the speckled band!'"
Beige: (drinking coffee) What's that about, a rock group with freckles?
Scooter: Nope - they think it refers to someone's scarf, but the speckled band is really a...
Storyteller: No, Scooter, don't give it away!
Erin: (filling tea kettle) Swamp adder.
Storyteller: Oh, for heaven's sake...another ending ruined.
Scooter: Snakes...why did it have to be snakes?
Erin: Yeah, they're everywhere in literature. "The serpent lies slain, but the worm has nature that will in time venom breed."
Nora: Or how about this: "'Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, a serpent stung me...but know, thou noble youth, the serpent that did sting thy father's life..."
N&E: (in unison) "Now wears his crown."
Scooter: Hey, wait a minute, we still need to return Uncle Deadly's "Hamlet" portrait.
Storyteller: Oh, that's right...it's over there by the sofa - go run it down the hall, will you?
Scooter: Right. (takes portrait off to room 1)
Beige: (singing softly) I don't like spiders and snakes...