I AM NOT A PEST

. . . but anyhow if I stopped being a nuisance, ""They wouldn't know what to do about me."" Like the narrator of I Want to be Big (above), the little girl baring her psyche here is ringing variations on a single theme, and one particularly amusing to with-it adults (e.g., ""Pests make noises when their mothers are watching TV. I don't. . . I only practice the trumpet""). And while there's a reasonable conclusion in this case--parents of a pest would be perplexed if she suddenly reformed--this same situation has been developed in real stories that put the pestiness in perspective instead of merely exploiting it for laughs.