Why Hop Ye So?

The mysterious jumping coal at North Dakota's' Wild Plum School (TIME, April 24) proved last week to be in sound accord with the scientific principle of increasing entropy (i.e., that the odds are trillions of trillions to one against lumps of coal spontaneously making little leaps). It was all a hoax, compounded of the pupils' legerdemain and the teacher's myopia.

With the school closed, the community in an uproar and a state investigation under way, Assistant Attorney General James W. Austin finally got a confession from four of Teacher Pauline Rebel's pupils. Their story: Teacher Rebel is nearsighted, even with her glasses. Her pupils stuck lighted matches in the bookcase and behind the window shades to simulate spontaneous combustion. They juggled the coal bucket with long pointers, threw lumps of coal around the room. Their sleight of hand was so skillful that it fooled not only the teacher but suggestible parents, one of whom swore that coals jumped out of his hand.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.