I had forgotten all the bathing suits when we left the island Sunday, and since the girls have been taking swimming Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, we were forced to make an emergency trip out there Monday to recover the suits, and, unfortunately, have an impromptu funeral for one of the octupi. While we were there, S picked up a handful of booklets from our spring trip to Washington D.C., given to us when we visited the offices of E. Clay Shaw, our local (east coast) representative.

She excitedly flipped through the first one, The Constitution of the United States of America, and began asking one question after another. I explained how the Constitution defines the make-up of our government, the distributions of power, and details the rights that each of us have as Americans.

"This is a very important book, Mom!"

"It is. You should definitely be familiar with your rights."

"They should make a book like this and give them out free to everybody!"

"Well, they do, honey, that's how we got ours."

"Then they should make everybody read it!"

"Yep."