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Blackwood, Algernon, 1869-1951

"The Extra Day"


"A whole day," murmured Judy, as if taken by surprise somehow; "a day
and a night, I mean."
She exchanged a glance of significant expectation with her brother,
but it was at their uncle they looked the moment after, because of the
strange and sudden sound that issued from his lips. For it was like a
cry, and his face wore a flushed and curious expression they could not
fathom. The face and the cry were signs of something utterly unusual.
He was startled--out of himself. A marvellous idea had evidently
struck him. "It's either something," thought Judy, "or else he's got a
pain." But Tim's mind was quicker. "He's got it," the boy decided,
meaning, "We've got it out of him at last!" Their manoeuvres had taken
so long of accomplishment that their original purpose had almost been
forgotten.
"A day, a whole day," Uncle Felix was mumbling to himself in a dazed
kind of happy way, "an entire day, I do declare!" He looked round
solemnly, yet with growing excitement, into the children's faces.
"Twenty-four hours! An entire day," he went on, half beneath his
breath.
"_Some day;_ of course..." Tim said in a low voice, catching the mood
of wonder, while Judy added, equally stirred up, "A day will come.


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