Maids a milking run up the tab

When I was in third grade, I played a swan in the school’s Christmas play. I had quite an elaborate costume, complete with three-foot neck and a body covered with white feathers. I had one line in the play, something that once you figured the cost of the costume equals about $5 a word.

A few years later, my brother played the Partridge in a Pear Tree in a school play. He wore his normal clothes and a beak and had lots of lines, since you have to say “And a partridge in a pear tree” a lot during that song. His outfit worked out to pennies a word.