By STEWART LOVECRAFT

When he was young, he was a fine boy.

And yet, he always seemed to be carrying a heavy load. Teachers and classmates wondered what was ailing him everyday; the weight of the world seemed to be on his little shoulders.

Until one day, in the front garden, after an hour of stooping and crouching around the Great Oak Tree while the other children ran and screamed, they returned to the classroom. In the course of being reprimanded for his slow reaction time and, among other things, his constant daydreaming, the Wise Professor furiously grabbed the Boy's heavy cartable to equip the Boy with a pencil.

But what the Wise Professor found inside the Boy's cartable was astonishing.

It was a market vendor's share of shining acorns, brilliant like a stash of currency contained in a first grader's book bag.

Decisively, the Wise Professor took the cartable and walked quickly out of the classroom, heading to the front garden.

The Boy began to cry into his hands out of embarrassment from his strange nut store which had just been publicly discovered. The mean kids laughed.

Confused, the sad boy trailed after the Wise Professor.

The Boy finally caught up to him. He was standing under the plume of the Great Oak Tree. Kneeling down the Wise Professor put his hands on the Boy's shoulders, "My dear boy," the Wise Professor shook his head, "My dear boy, this here bag of nuts is too heavy for you! Tell me, what are you thinking?"

With the harsh wind and intense sun, his little tears flaked and dried to the his cheeks.

The Boy understood, but the Wise Professor remained silent.

The Wise Professor stood up and held the bag, but refused to dump out the continents for the Boy.

Suddenly, the cartable slammed to the ground before the Boy's shoes and the Boy looked up to the Wise Professor.

And the Wise Professor demanded, "Now, my dear boy… Give Nature back her burden!"

That day, not yet able to recite the Lord's Prayer, at the age of six, the Boy was forced to relinquish his treasured acorns; forced to invent yet another new personality: making exactly eight new personalities in less than seven years.