This is a story for children in the grades 4-7. It teaches math and English through story telling. The Short children visit a grave yard near their home and the Parts of Speech come out of the tombs. Miss Verb tells them how they came to be in the tombs. It had to do with a sack race on a high mountain long ago. Everyone wished to win, so they tried to knock one another out of winning. The results were a disaster. In Part 2 the children help John celebrate his birthday. His mother introduces him to the Math family. These characters teach him how to add, subtract, divide, and multiply by helping him buy his own presents.