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Margalo liked the Littles’ house so much that she decided to stay for a while. She and Stuart became great friends. It seemed to Stuart that Margalo grew more and more beautiful every day.

“I hope she will never fly away from me,” he thought.

One day when Stuart was already quite well he took his new skates and went out to look for an ice pond. He didn’t get far. In the street he saw a big dog. Very quickly he climbed up an iron gate, jumped into a garbage can and hid there. Just at this time a garbage truck drove up to the gate and two men picked up the can and raised it high in the air. Stuart looked out and saw the big truck.

“If I jump now I shall kill myself,” thought Stuart. So he decided to wait. The men threw the can into the truck, where another man turned it upside down and shook everything out. Stuart fell on his head and sank deep into wet garbage. Its smell was very strong. Garbage was under him, over him, on all four sides of him. Stuart had egg on his trousers, butter on his coat, orange peel on his cap, and banana peel round his waist.

With the skates in his hands, Stuart tried to get to the surface of the garbage. He was almost near the top when he slipped and fell into a pool of yesterday’s rice pudding.

“I am afraid that I shall be sick,” said Stuart, and he tried again to work his way up to the top. At last he got to the surface and looked around. “Why, we are going somewhere!” he said. “And very fast, too!”

He looked up at the sun. “We are going east,” he said to himself. “What does it mean?”

There was no way to get out of the truck, the sides were too high. So Stuart had to wait.

Half an hour later the truck reached the East River, which is on the east of New York City. It is a dirty but useful river. The driver drove closer to the river and shook out all the garbage onto a special boat. Stuart fell down along with everything else and hit his head. He fainted and for an hour lay still as though dead.

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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.

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