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Автор Garth Williams

This ebook edition first published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2015

HarperCollins Children’s Books

A division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in the USA 1945

First published in Great Britain by Hamish Hamilton Children’s Books Ltd, 1946

Stuart Little

Text copyright © E. B. White, 1945

Text copyright renewed © E. B. White, 1973

Illustration copyright renewed © Garth Williams, 1973

Colourisations copyright © 1999 by Estate of Garth Williams

E. B. White and Garth Williams assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Ebook Edition © MARCH 2015 ISBN: 9780008139421

Version: 2015-03-09

Contents

WHEN Mrs Frederick C. Little’s second son arrived, everybody noticed that he was not much bigger than a mouse.

The truth of the matter was, the baby looked very much like a mouse in every way. He was only about two inches high; and he had a mouse’s sharp nose, a mouse’s tail, a mouse’s whiskers, and the pleasant, shy manner of a mouse. Before he was many days old he was not only looking like a mouse but acting like one, too – wearing a grey hat and carrying a small cane. Mr and Mrs Little named him Stuart, and Mr Little made him a tiny bed out of four clothespins and a cigarette box.

Unlike most babies, Stuart could walk as soon as he was born. When he was a week old he could climb lamps by shinnying up the cord. Mrs Little saw right away that the infant clothes she had provided were unsuitable, and she set to work and made him a fine little blue worsted suit with patch pockets in which he could keep his handkerchief, his money, and his keys. Every morning, before Stuart dressed, Mrs Little went into his room and weighed him on a small scale which was really meant for weighing letters. At birth Stuart could have been sent by first class mail for three cents, but his parents preferred to keep him rather than send him away; and when, at the age of a month, he had gained only a third of an ounce, his mother was so worried she sent for the doctor.