I forgot to mention

that when we were in Wells (a day trip from Bath), we checked out the cathedral there and stayed for an evensong service. One of the readers was an immensely tall man with a deep voice. James and Thomas were fascinated by him. After the service we were walking back across the close when the man came up to say hello. He was wearing a long cloak with a nifty metal fastener over his cassock. James was so transfixed, and so eager to be friends, that when the man bent down to say hello to him James responded with the most interesting thing he could think of:

"At Christmas Mimi's tire got hurt and it was all flat -- I saw it flat on the ground -- and then the man came in a truck and put a new little tire on and now it has a new big tire on it!"

The man took James just as seriously as he'd been hoping and answered: "I got a puncture myself a few weeks ago. I wish you'd been there to see it -- you would have enjoyed it much more than I did."