One day I memorized all of “The Walrus and the Carpenter” because I wanted Ruthie to hear me. “The sun was shining on the sea, shining with all his might …” Ruthie looked at the sky and her eyes got watery at times. Finally I came to the last lines: “But answer came there none—and this was scarcely odd, because they’d eaten every one …” She took a long time looking at me before she opened her mouth, and then she said, You have the most beautiful teeth I have ever seen, and went inside.
