Index | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22

One morning when the wind was from the west, Stuart put on his sailor suit and his sailor hat and decided to go out for a walk. But before he went out he took his spyglass from the shelf. This spyglass was a special glass, like a sailor's; through this glass Stuart could see the things that were far away. He always took his spyglass with him when he went out for a walk because he was afraid of dogs. Every time he saw a dog through his spyglass, he ran to the nearest doorman, climbed his leg and hid in the pocket of his coat. Once, when there was no doorman in the street, Stuart had to crawl into a yesterday's paper and sit there till danger was past. So that morning, full of the joy of life and the fear of dogs, Stuart went out for a walk in his sailor suit and his sailor hat.

At the corner of Fifth Avenue several people waited for the bus, and Stuart joined them. Nobody noticed him, because he was very small.

"I am so small that nobody notices me," thought Stuart, "but I am big enough to go on a bus."

When the bus came into view, all the people waved their sticks and handbags, and Stuart waved his spyglass, and the driver stopped the bus. The step of the bus was too high for Stuart, so he took hold of a gentleman's shoe and got into the bus without any trouble.

Stuart could not buy tickets on buses because he was not big enough to carry money in his pocket. Once, when somebody gave him a dime, he had to roll it along like a hoop. But as he grew older, he understood that it was not good to ride on a bus without a ticket, so he asked his father to help him, and Mr. Little made him special tiny dimes out of tin foil. They were so tiny that it was difficult to see them without spectacles.

When the conductor came up to him, Stuart took one of his dimes out of his purse. It was not bigger than the eye of a grasshopper.

"What is this?" asked the conductor.

"It's one of my dimes," said Stuart.

"Is it?" said the conductor. "I'm afraid it will be difficult to explain it to the bus company. Why, you are not bigger than a dime yourself."

"Yes, I am!" said Stuart angrily. "I'm twice as big as a dime. Besides, I did not come on this bus to be insulted."

"I beg your pardon," said the conductor, and gave him a ticket. "You must forgive me, I had no idea that in all the world there was such a small sailor."

"Live and learn," said Stuart drily and put his purse back in his pocket.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

This version of Stuart Little was originally published in Moscow, in 1964.  All rights are reserved by respective copyright owners and this version must not be used in any other but private ESL study settings.  Hard or electronic copies for business purposes are prohibited.

© 1998 Ervin Nemeth. All rights reserved.

Some of the materials presented on these pages are copyrighted by their respective authors or original publishers. You are not allowed to use them in any other but non-profit, educational setting.  You may use the "chickenology.net"  or  "Ervin's ESL Net" logos (c) when creating a link to our site.  Send e-mail notification of doing so to the Webmaster.