things move around

Herman from Sprout Lake is a handsome fellow, and as modest as he is handsome. He’s lived in Sprout Lake all his life, born and raised, and doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon. Why would he, when he’s acknowledged by all who have a say in these things to be Sprout Lake’s most eligible bachelor?

Handsome Herman has a hobby: photography. He got himself a digital camera two years ago and in his spare time he likes to capture the little splendours of Sprout Lake - the tumbling creek full of fish in the spring haze; leaves on the lake in the fall, and the picture he sent in to the regional TV Weather program, of the snow-blanketed humpy hills crisp as new linen in the thin February sun.

That was the picture they showed at the end of the broadcast, and the weathercaster read out his thanks to Herman, from Sprout Lake. So Herman became something of a celebrity, not only in Sprout Lake, but in the surrounding villages and towns, and even in the provincial capital, and from his front door to the valley’s end stretched a line of nymphettes, each desirous of handsome Herman’s handsome hand in marriage, or, as they were called by the older folk of Sprout Lake, Hermanettes.