A gentle knock was heard. But
no one answered, for it seemed that no one was aware of it. The figure
paused a moment to recover breath.
"And then, and then? What happened next? Did they thank the rabbit?"
"They all thanked each other then. The man thanked the rabbit, and the
rabbit thanked the squirrel, and the mouse woke up, and--"
No one noticed the slip, which proved that their attention was already
painfully divided. For another knock, much louder than before, had
interrupted the continuation of the story. The figure turned its head
to listen. "It's nothing," said Tim quickly. "It's only a sound," said
Judy. "What did the mouse do? Please tell us quickly."
"I thought I heard a knock," the figure murmured. "Perhaps I was
mistaken. The mouse--er--the mouse woke up--"
"You told us that."
The figure continued, speaking with greater rapidity even than before:
"And looked about it, and found the view so lovely that it said it
would never live in a pocket again, but would divide its time in
future between the fields and houses. So it pricked its whiskers up,
and the squirrel curled its tail over its back to avoid any places
that still were damp, and the rabbit polished its big front teeth on
the grass and said it was quite pleased to have a stump instead of a
tail as a memento of a memorable occasion when they had all been
nearly drowned together, and--they all skipped up to the top of the
high chalk cliffs as dry as a bone and as happy as--"
He broke off in the middle of the enormous sentence to say a most
ridiculous and unnecessary thing.
Pages:
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41