Clipped this from the free weekly Reader 24 years ago. Now it’s the season to share it again.
If it’s too small to read, here’s what it says:
Ernie Pook’s Comeek, by Lynda Barry 2000
This Time of Year
It gets dark after Halloween passes. Something about Earth’s axis and our distance from the sun. I got it right on the test but can’t remember it now.
At the equator things are different. No winter. No turning back clocks. What are they doing on the equator today? How late do they get to stay outside? Here it gets darker and darker.
In my class we are reading about plants, the wonder of them. There is an experiment we are doing. A baby bean plant in the corner of a closed-up box. A tiny pin-hole poked in the opposite side.
Today we got to open it. The bean plant had tried. The bean plant had struggled. It made it halfway across the box before it died. Only stupid idiots cry about a bean plant. They are going to tease me about this forever.