M. P. Morse

I ...

- was raised in rural South Dakota baling hay and feeding cattle and never saw an elf there but sometimes rowed up a shallow creek overhung with low branches to read Mark Twain novels -- elves might have been present.

- Once hitch-hiked on an airplane out of Luang Prabang, Laos -- no European style elves there nor in Kathmandu, Nepal --- just monkeys

- Worked as a bellboy in a German hotel -- elves avoided such places

- Hiked across the Wilderness of Judea from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea -- too barren for elves

- Taught English in Japan -- very different forest creatures there

- Got a Ph.D. in theology in England; might have seen an elf once near Hartlebury Castle, U.K

- Moved to Minnesota, knowing that elves enjoy the Northern Lights there just as in Denmark and Sweden, according to friends visited there

- Got a big backyard, built a fishpond and a treehouse, put in lots of plants close to the forest in the back -- expect to see an elf sooner or later