Meg was entranced by the market stall, which was festooned with wonderful colourful things. There was such a lot to choose from. She reached into the pocket of her yellow and pink cotton shorts for her holiday money and held up a coin to the woman on the stall. Meg pointed to a multicoloured stripey hat with lots of tassels. Meg handed over her coin and the woman gave her the hat.

“ὀκτώπους περισκελίδες,” said the woman.

Meg, had not yet learned to speak Greek so she smiled and put the hat in her knapsack and went to the harbour. Meg tried on the hat, but it didn’t fit. The tassels were all wrong and the opening for her head was a strange shape. Meg was disappointed, but she was sure she’d work out a use for it. She loved the bright colours.

Just then a large ginger cat came and brushed against her arm in that way that cats do when they want attention.

“Maybe it will fit you,” said Meg to the cat, “This would be a wonderful coat for a cat.”

She stroked the cat and tried to fit the coat. At first the cat didn’t seem to mind, but the coat didn’t fit the cat very well and there were tassels flopping all over the place. The cat wriggled out of the coat and walked away down the harbour wall with its tail in the air.

“Oh well,” thought Meg, “perhaps it will fit that little sausage dog over there. I bet this would be a wonderful coat for a sausage dog.”

She tickled the little dog under its pointy chin and tried to fit the coat. At first the little dog didn’t seem to mind, but the coat just got into knots and the tassels tangled around the dog's short legs. The dog yapped and wriggled out of the coat and ran away with its little tail between its legs.

Meg was a bit disappointed and decided to go home. She put the hat-coat-thing back in her knapsack.

On the way home Meg met an old fisherman who had a basket tied onto his motor scooter. Wriggling about in the basket was a large octopus. Meg asked about the octopus.

“My dinner,” said the fisherman, smiling.

“Please can I have it?” said Meg, wanting to set it free. She held up her last coin. The fisherman was a kind man and he shrugged and waved away the coin. He wrestled the octopus into Meg’s knapsack.

Meg went down to the beach intending to set the octopus free. The octopus wriggled and squiggled in her knapsack. She opened her knapsack and was amazed to see that the octopus had wriggled its way into the hat-coat-thing. Each of its tentacles filled a tassel and the opening fit the octopus perfectly. The octopus looked happy. It flibbled out of the knapsack and set off down the beach, resplendent in its multi-coloured octopus trousers.