Ned was so ordinary, that the word ordinary might have been invented to describe him. It was therefore an even bigger suprise than it might have been to the residents of Roundly Bottom when Ned suddenly took up yodelling. Ned yodelled in the morning on his way to buy his daily paper, he yodelled as he dug his vegetable patch, and he yodelled on his way to church on Sundays. Though Ned did manage to contain his yodels durin the hymns, it was tense time for everyone when come Christmas 'Gloria In Excelses' appeared on the order of service, several times.
Spring came and Ned went as usual in the first week of May to stay with his Great Aunt Agatha in Dorset. The weather was lovely and there was nothing to stop Ned from spending many hours yodelling on the beaches, although some people tried. But WPC Mandy Nixon-Friday checked every law she could find and said that Ned was within his rights to yodel, as long as he did not do so in a built up area.
One afternoon as Ned walked along the beach yodelling happily he was suprised to see a mermaid sunning herself on a rock just offshore, Ned rubbed his eyes and looked again. The mermaid was still there. She smiled and told Ned that her name was Delilah, but that her firends called her Del. She had been watching Ned and had fallen in love with him. If he would join he in living in the sea she would be able to make him imortal, and they could live happily ever after. There was just one thing, she wanted Ned to stop yodelling, as the high notes gave her a headache. Ned gazed at the beautiful mermaid, but he hestitated at her request to stop yodelling. Apart from that both Ned and the mermaid knew that they were made for each other. Ned thought, there were no questions, only one, Del or yodel.
