The Castle With the Crooked Tower

All the castles in the kingdom had straight towers. Sir Lumi's castle had a tower that leaned to the left.

Sir Lumi had inherited the castle from her grandfather. The tower had leaned even back then. It was probably going to keep leaning forever, slowly.

The other knights of the kingdom laughed about it.

"Lumi's leaning tower," they would say at the harvest fair. "When does it fall?"

"It does not fall," Sir Lumi would answer, politely. "It just leans."

She did not love the tower. But it was hers, and she was loyal to it, the way you are loyal to a slightly odd dog.

One autumn, a problem came to the kingdom.

Migrating geese had begun nesting on the kingdom's tallest tower — the King's straight tower, in the capital. The geese were lovely birds, but their droppings were ruining the King's tower roof, and the tower was now too smelly for the royal pigeons, who were sulking.

The King's advisors thought about it.

"We need to encourage the geese to nest somewhere else," said the chief advisor. "Somewhere they will like better."

"What do geese like?"

"Geese like a flat surface tilted slightly so the rain runs off. They like something that gathers a small wind. They like a roof that is not bothered by their feet."

Everybody, slowly, looked west, in the direction of Sir Lumi's leaning tower.