Croutons...
by Dennis M. Falk
4 July 2011
Issued under a Creative Commons license BY-NC-SA (any version)

Three old hands were hanging out at the livery, across the dusty street from the local tavern. With them was a young merchant, just in from the Capital.

As the young merchant, a grey fox, tied up his horse and hung up the saddle, one of the old hands, a careworn red fox, simply blurted out, "That tavern there's got the biggest croutons in the Kingdom."

"Oh? You don't say," said the merchant. "What, they're 2 or 3 inches on a side?"

"Bigger," said the second old hand, an overweight squirrel who has seen better days.

"Oh, they can't be too big, not for soups and salads," retorted the merchant fox.

"Look for yourself- Someone's coming out with one now!", so said the third old hand, an underweight, but clearly hard-working white hare.

"Huh?", said the young merchant, as he turned his gaze at the tavern's doorway.

Out came a rather burly grey wolf, with what looked like a large parcel on his back- No, it was a single large crouton, looking almost twice the size of the wolf.

"Oh, my G---," exclaimed the young grey fox, dropping his own luggage to the hay-covered floor in total amazement.

"Yep," said the old red fox, "and you should see the loaf o' bread that baby's carved from!"

- - - -

Just some crazy idea while I was eating a Caesar salad for dinner... :)

d.m.f.