The Picture Book

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Title:     The Picture Book
Author: Laura E. Richards [More Titles by Richards]

"Brother," said the little boy, "show me a pretty picture book!"

"Nay!" said the brother. "I would rather show you this book with the ugly pictures, so that when you come to see ugly things you may know what they are. Look! see this, how hateful it is; and this, how hideous; and here again, this, enough to turn one cold with horror."

"Oh!" said the child; and he shuddered. "They are horrible indeed; show me more!"

Next day the brother found the child before a mirror, twisting his face this way and that, squinting, and making a thousand horrible grimaces.

"My dear little boy," cried the brother, "why are you making yourself so hideous?"

"I want to see if I can look like the pictures in the book!" said the child.

[The end]
Laura E. Richards's Short Story: Picture Book

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