play a game to choose our Pope. Its a lot more fun than this boring play."
Everyone shouts happily and one student calls out, "Tell us how to play the game, good sir!"
"It's really very easy. If you want to be Pope, you come up to the stage. One by one you put your heads through a hole in a sheet. We choose the person who can make the ugliest face."
The crowd loves the game. They laugh as one strange face after another pushes through the hole. But suddenly the crowd is silent. They have seen some very ugly faces, but now they are clearly looking at the winner.The face has a nose like a big potato, a wide mouth in the shape of a horseshoe, a small left eye under heavy red hair, a closed right eye, and a few very large and broken teeth. It also has a look that seems dangerous and sad at the same time.
"The Pope! The Pope!" shouts the crowd. A few students pull down the sheet and the people see their Pope.
"Oh, it's Quasimodo. What an ugly thing he is!" one person says. "He's strong, too. He can kill you with two fingers."
"Don't look!" shouts another. "He's as ugly as a wild animal."
Quasimodo is famous in this part of Paris because he rings the bells at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. His body, like his big face and head, is terrible to look at. He has very large hands and feet, and strangely shaped legs that come together at the knees. The big hump on his back has given him the name the "Hunchback of Notre-Dame." He cannot hear so nobody talks to him. In fact, nobody goes near him. The good people of Paris are afraid of Quasimodo. They believe the stories they have heard about him: He is evil.
But the businessman from Ghent is very pleased. "This is surely the ugliest man in Paris. You've chosen a good Pope."
The students run to the stage with a gold paper hat and coat for their Pope of Fools. They put him on a chair and lift him on their shoulders. Then they carry him through the streets of the city, with
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TJiey have seen some very ugly faces, but now they are clearly looking at
the winner.