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HOW RABBIT LOST HIS TAIL
baskets out of rushes and he was biting them off with his teeth. He looked up and spied Mr. Rabbit with the knife in his mouth.
"O, please, Mr. Rabbit," said he, "will you not be so kind as to let me borrow that sharp knife you are carrying? It is very hard work to bite the rushes off with my teeth."
Mr. Rabbit let him take the knife. He started to cut off the rushes with it, when snap went the knife! It broke into halves.
"O, dear! O, dear!" cried Mr. Rabbit. "What shall I do! What shall I do! You have broken my nice new knife."
The little old man said that he was very sorry and that he did not mean to do it.
Then Mr. Rabbit said, "A broken knife is of no use to me but perhaps you can use
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