"You promised funny today, Mrs. Pidgeon! You said we could do funny poems!" Ben said. "I did indeed," Mrs. Pidgeon told the class. "Humorous poems today." She went to the board and wrote a word: LIMERICK. Just then there was a knock on the classroom door. It opened, and Mr. Leroy, the principal, came in. Today he was wearing his chess-game tie, with little knights and pawns and other chess pieces on it in a pattern. "Just visiting," he said with a smile. "Got room for me?" Mrs. Pidgeon, still standing at the board, pulled her chair away from her desk and gestured to Mr. Leroy. "Oh good," he said as he sat down in the teacher's chair. "Thank you. I don't mind sitting at a child's desk, but my knees are always stiff afterward." "Class, shall we tell Mr. Leroy what we're studying?" "Poetry!" the second-graders said loudly, all together. Mr. Leroy made a face. "I was hoping you'd be studying volcanoes. I'm afraid poetry might be booorring." The children were silent for a moment.
