FAIRIES I HAVE MET
scramble ashore when you know there are a large number of fierce savages waiting for you!
"This is rather tiresome," thought Christabel.
She was very glad when the person who was reading the book shut it up again, and she was allowed to go quietly to sleep.
But her sleep was not long. Every time any one began to read the book poor Christabel was obliged to wake up and go through all her troubles again. She soon became horribly tired of being shipwrecked.
"Have I got to spend the rest of my life with pirates and savages?" she asked herself in despair.
It was especially annoying that they were always the same pirates and savages, who said always exactly the same things. Christabel soon knew the whole book by heart. She wished sometimes she could be one of the pirates for a change, instead of being always a little girl.
"I suppose I shall never even be grown up," she thought sadly.
The most unpleasant thing of all was that she was never able to say what she wished to say: she was always obliged to say what was in the book. Sometimes she opened her mouth to say what was in her mind, and then found herself speaking words that had nothing to do with her thoughts.
"It is simply hateful not to be able to say and do what one likes," she thought.
She made up her mind to try and be drowned at the very next shipwreck. Of course it was useless for her to try, for the book said she was saved by a big wave which flung her up on a rock. It was uncomfortable for her to
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