days we a ther. Fair. 9C."

He put the paper down and looked at his wife with an expression of wonder and fear.

"Now what do you make 'o that?" he asked, "Is it not the sound 'o the prophets? This is no paper for the priests! This is the word of the Lord!"

"But husband, that cannot be. The prophets speak grander than this! They speak in a different manner to this, telling of nations and cities. They never speak of the weather with numbers and such! And they make better sense. Surely this must be some jester’s prank instead. I cannot abide such things, but there are people who feel it is their duty to play them."

Duncan looked disappointed. He spread the newspaper out on the table and read some more.

"In the news. Call for T-G-H-S to start a fresh. What manner of name is that?

This is a powerful mystery to me!"

"Perhaps," said Jeanette, "It was written by a madman?"

"More than likely, woman," said Duncan, opening the newspaper out and looking for more words small enough for him to cope with.

"Rain, but not where it’s need ed," he read out, "Well-ing-ton. As Auck-land cries out for rain, clouds were drop-ping co-pi-ous am-ounts of wat-er ov-er the lo-wer North Is-land this wee-kend."

"This is a strange writing," said Duncan, looking at his wife again, 'There be a place where there live auks, and they cry to the Lord for rain! But he hears them not. They must be powerful wicked auks for the Lord to turn away his ear from them!"

Jeanette moved closer to her husband and looked about the page too.

"What be that?" she asked, pointing at a Honda Civic advertisement.

'It looks to me like a cart with a load, but the stacking's poor, you can look right through the load"

Fascinated and intrigued, the peasants struggled through the strange and mysterious things in the newspaper. They wondered about the 'New World' super mark et, and the Sport's page with the man in strange clomes, flying above the ground between two other men. Jeanette looked away, embarrassed, when the lingerie pictures appeared, and Duncan stared, never having seen