The Funny Walking-stick
To pay Mrs Twit back for the worms in his spaghetti, Mr
Twit thought up a really clever nasty trick.
One night, when the old woman was asleep, he crept
out of bed and took her walking-stick downstairs to his
workshed. There he stuck a tiny round piece of wood
(no thicker than a penny) on to the bottom of the stick.
This made the stick longer, but the difference was so
small, the next morning Mrs Twit didn't notice it.
The following night, Mr Twit stuck on another tiny bit of
wood. Every night, he crept downstairs and added an
extra tiny thickness of wood to the end of the walkingstick.
He did it very neatly so that the extra bits looked
like a part of the old stick.
Gradually, but oh so gradually, Mrs Twit's walking-stick
was getting longer and longer.
Now when something is growing very slowly, it is
almost impossible to notice it happening. You yourself,
for example, are actually growing taller every day that
goes by, but you wouldn't think it, would you? It's
happening so slowly you can't even notice it from one
week to the next.