An English couple have a *****. After the birth, medical tests reveal that the ***** is normal, apart from the fact that it is German. This however should not be a problem. There is nothing to worry about. As the ***** grows older, it dresses in lederhosen and has a pudding bowl haircut, but all its basic functions develop normally. It can walk, eat, *****, read and so on, but for some reason the German ***** never speaks. The concerned parents take it to the doctor, who reassures them that as the German ***** is perfectly developed in all other areas, there is nothing to worry about and that he is sure the speech faculty will eventually blossom. Years pass. The German ***** enters its teens, and still it is not speaking, though in all other respects it is fully functional. The German *****’s ****** is especially distressed by this, but attempts to conceal her sadness. One day she makes the German *****, who is now ********* years old and still silent, a bowl of tomato soup, and takes it through to him in the parlour where he is listening to a wind-up gramophone record player. Soon, the German ***** appears in the kitchen and suddenly declares, “******. This soup is a little tepid.” The German *****’s ****** is astonished. “All these years,” she exclaims, “we assumed you could not speak. And yet all along it appears you could. Why? Why did you never say anything before?” “Because ******,” answers the German *****, “up until now, everything has been satisfactory.”