Bartholomew Cubbins nearly ended up dead after silly King Derwin (the ruler of Didd), demanded he remove the hat from his head. Poor Bartholomew, try as he might, could not stop his hat from reappearing in the popular Dr. Seuss classic "The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins."

An unsuspecting Bartholomew only wanted to help his parents when he ventured into town to sell a few cranberries at the marketplace. You can only imagine his fear when the attention of the entire kingdom focused on him as King Derwin accused him of being disrespectful.

Bartholomew almost lost his head because of that darned hat.

Dr. Seuss was the pen name of Theodor Seuss Geisel, an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He is most famous for his rhyming, nonsensical stories with delightful, imaginary words.

"The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins," published in 1938, was unusual because the text didn't rhyme.

We can celebrate the genius of Dr. Seuss on his birthday, March 2, by making a cap like the ones poor Bartholomew tried so desperately to discard, with instructions I found at www.familyfun.go.com on the Web. I modified the directions slightly.

red feltdouble-sided mounting tapestaplerscissorsrulermarking penlarge featherplastic gemswiggle eyespipe cleanersFold a large piece of red felt in half. With the fold on your left, measure 12 inches from the bottom corner to the right, and mark. Draw a 5-inch line up at this mark, parallel to the fold, and make a mark at the end of the 5 inches.On the folded edge, measure 12 inches up from the bottom corner of the felt and make a mark.Use your marking pen to draw an arc from the top mark on the folded edge to the mark you made at the top of the 5-inch line. Cut the felt along the arc and the 5-inch line and discard the leftover felt.Keeping the felt folded, staple a seam along the curved edge at least a half-inch in from the edges of the felt. Leave the short, straight edge unstapled.Turn the hat inside out and staple the halves together along the short, 5-inch long edge. Fold the bottom of the hat up to create the brim.Cut two small slits, leaving 1½ inches of felt between them, on one side of the hat just below the brim level. Thread the feather in and out of the holes.Use mounting tape to attach the wiggle eyes, curled pipe cleaners and gems. Cover the stapled seam with cloth tape.