And
so they walked about the tiny island and enjoyed the view together--"
"The mouse couldn't have seen much!"
"Until, one day, the mouse declared the ground was ALWAYS wet and was
getting wetter and wetter. And the man got frightened."
"Ugh! It's going to get awful in a minute!" And the children nestled
closer. The voice sank lower. It became mysterious.
"And the wetter it got the more the man got frightened; for the island
was dreadfully tiny and--"
"Why, please, did it get wetter and wetter?"
"THAT," continued the man who earned his living in His Majesty's
Stationery Office by day, and by night justified his existence
offering the raw material of epics unto little children, "that was the
extraordinary part of it. For no one could discover. The man stroked
his beard and looked about him, the squirrel shook its bushy tail, the
rabbit lifted its upper lip and thrust its teeth out, and the mouse
jerked its head from side to side until its whiskers grew longer and
sharper than ever--but none of them could discover why the island got
wetter and wetter and wetter--"
"Perhaps it just rained like here."
"For the sky was always blue, it never rained, and there was so little
dew at night that no one even mentioned it.
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