sent from: Esher, UK. destination: Eastbourne, UK

A test, said Mother to the household as they looked outside at the sparkling decorated fir; how tall is our tree? The eldest, the theorist, used the stars to calculate it. The middle child, a poet, spoke of its height as would a nesting bird, seeing to the sea. The youngest, the engineer, climbed on a ladder and dropped a weighted string, declaring it to be her height times three. The cat padded in, his black fur studded with needles, saying it was tall enough for the best baubles to be just out of reach. Mother looked at them all, smiling. You make me proud, she said, but it is even taller than all of those, for you neglected to measure from the base of its roots which run deep, deep, deep.