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Squirrel

    It was when Squirrel Nutkin appeared at the October Board meeting that Mr. Ramsay began to A22 .................. his reputation for eccentricity. And that's putting it A23 .................. To be fair, there were people who said at the time that there was nothing wrong in wearing a glove puppet to a Board meeting. However, there were more who disagreed, and several who thought that Mr. Ramsay was off his chump. The matter was hotly disputed in the company's offices, on the shop floor, in the canteen.

    It happened during Mr. Giles's monthly overlong summary of the company's financial position. Two factors were making the prospects for Ramsay & Co look bleak.

    The first of these factors spoke for itself. There were simply fewer items of hosiery being sold. Whether this was due to the long hot summer combined with the undoubted increase A24 .................. the uptake of feminine trousers, or it was a sign of continued recession was not for him to say. Ramsay & Co simply had to A25 .................. the facts, whether they liked them or not, and accept what the market was telling them. Reality didn't always turn A26 .................. the way people wanted it to.

    The second factor, however, was where they could do something about. Ramsay & Co's costs were inordinately high compared to those of its competitors, who had been cutting back on staff over the last five years, reducing their workforce to one-fifth of its previous level. It was high A27 .................. that Ramsay & Co got itself into a similar position.

    None of the Board members was surprised at what Mr. Giles had to say. He had, after all, said it all before, many times, over the past several months. Mr. Ramsay had, until now, always stubbornly resisted him. This time, though, what happened was different from all the previous occasions. Mr. Ramsay had never before produced a glove puppet from underneath the table. He had never had a squirrel sitting on his left hand during a presentation.

    The only two pairs of eyes in the room focused on Mr. Giles during his summation of the company's position were those of Mr. Ramsay and the squirrel, both of whom were shaking their heads very slightly. The other Board members were sitting shocked with their mouths wide open and were A28 .................. at the puppet.