it all began with effie's getting something in her eye. it hurt very much indeed, and it felt something like a red-hot spark only it seemed to have legs as well, and wings like a fly. effie rubbed and cried not real crying, but the kind your eye does all by itself without your being miserable inside your mind and then she went to her father to have the thing in her eye taken out. effie's father was a doctor, so of course he knew how to take things out of eyes he did it very cleverly with a soft paintbrush dipped in castor oil.