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THE STORY WITHOUT AN END

“I should like to live with you,” said the Child to the two little creatures, in a soft subdued voice, that he might not frighten them. “Your chambers are so snug, so warm, and yet so shaded, and the flowers grow in at your windows, and the birds sing you their morning song, and call you to table and to bed with their clear warblings.”

“Yes,” said the mouse, “it would be all very well if all the plants bore nuts and mast, instead of those silly flowers; and if I were not obliged to grub underground in the spring, and gnaw the bitter roots, whilst they are dressing themselves in their fine

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