::SCOUTING::

A chubby Cub Scout trods beside his corpulent, waddling mom. Spontaneously, he begins to skip. And I don't mean run-of-the-mill skipping. I mean, feet-a-foot-off-the-floor, like-it's-going-out-of-style, for-the-sheer-joy-of-it skipping.

Later, I approach him: "Hey, I saw you skipping before; I love that you skip!"

His face brightens. "Really?" He takes my arm. "Would you like to skip together?"

Of course, I did, and we jigged through the galleries a bit.

"Okay, I need to go. I'm Manager on Duty today, and I have a lot of things to do."

"Awwww..." He puts his arm around my waist and looks petulant, in that non-petulant way only a Cub Scout in full uniform can.

"Sorry. But you have to keep skipping!"

"You're right." And he jubilantly skips away, joining his mom in the next room.