We were teasing Robot, saying the coyote was howling because it longed to hear a lecture on snakeskin. But he apparently didn’t realize we were pulling his leg, because he hesitated for a moment, considering whether to actually go after the coyote.

The park ranger, Mr. Motyčka, didn’t want to let us pass through the dangerous Mushroom Forest at first. But when he learned about the broken Thought Expressway and the increased occurrence of nonsense, he acknowledged that we had no other choice.