Sideways Stories From Wayside School Chapter 18 Summary

Leslie

  • At last we get to hear about Leslie, whose pigtails tempted Paul back in Chapter 10. Leslie's problem seems simple: She has ten toes, but she doesn't know what to do with them.
  • Sharie suggests sucking them, while Dana suggests scratching her legs, but Leslie isn't itchy.
  • When Leslie asks Louis, he offers to solve the problem by taking her toes away—he asks her to cut them off and give them to him. "You won't have to worry about them ever again" (18.17), he says.
  • When Leslie refuses, Louis elaborates: He wants to give them to Miss Mush, the lunch teacher, so she can make hot dogs out of them. Um… gross.
  • Finally Louis offers Leslie five cents apiece for her toes. She goes back to class and asks Mrs. Jewls if there's any reason why she shouldn't sell them, then she goes back down to Louis to sell her toes.
  • When she tells Louis, he asks her to take her shoes off so he can see her toes before he buys them. He offers her three cents instead of five for the smaller ones. They bargain, but can't agree. Leslie walks away without selling them, because she wants a full fifty cents for the set of ten.
  • As she leaves, Louis offers her a dollar apiece for her pigtails. But apparently hair is far more valuable to Leslie than toes because she says, "Cut my hair! Are you crazy!?" (18.45).