Was there anything Stanley King did poorly

Sample – Children’s Fiction

Was there anything Stanley Foster did poorly? Certainly he didn’t think so. In fact, he seemed to think he was very nearly perfect. And he wanted perfection from everyone else, too.

“Puffery, puffery!” Stanley’s long-suffering butler often blustered to the kitchen servants, after he had listened to Stanley boast all through breakfast. Serving breakfast was one of the servants’ least favorite chores, because Stanley’s requirements were so exacting. He required three and one-third English muffins with exactly two-and-an-eighth tablespoons of orange marmalade on the side; a fresh white tea rose with a six-inch stem; a glass of three-and-one-half-percent milk; yesterday’s afternoon newspaper from New Delhi (which was very, very difficult to find); and fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice. To make things worse, the poor butler was always required to stand at attention, with his left hand in his right pocket, and listen to Stanley tell him all about his clever dreams from the night before. “What a bore that fellow is,” the butler would mutter as he left Stanley’s bedroom each morning.

But as conceited and picky as Stanley was, everyone agreed that he did one thing exceedingly well – so well, in fact, that people visited him every afternoon to watch: he made the most exquisite belly-button-lint sculptures anyone had ever seen. Of course, he made the only belly-button-lint sculptures anyone had ever seen. Still, they were beautiful, and the butler often thought (on his more charitable days), perhaps there is hope for our Stanley after all……..