louisa , his sister , would needle him about this as they walked to the village school in the morning , as she would goad him about so many other things : the shape of his ears , for example ( the right ear was flat against his head , and almost pointed ; the left one was not ) , and about the foolish things he said : once he told her that the tiny clouds , fluffy and white , that clustered across the horizon at sunset as they walked home from school , were sheep .