Page:Carroll - Sylvie and Bruno.djvu/345

XXI] Sylvie got up hastily. "I'd better go," she said, aside to me, "before he gets into the double figures!"

"Let me come and help you," I said. "I can reach higher up than you can."

"Yes, please," said Sylvie, putting her hand into mine: and we walked off together.

"Bruno loves blackberries," she said, as we paced slowly along by a tall hedge, that looked a promising place for them, "and it was so sweet of him to make me eat the only one!"

"Oh, it was you that ate it, then? Bruno didn't seem to like to tell me about it."

"No; I saw that," said Sylvie. "He's always afraid of being praised. But he made me eat it, really! I would much rather he——oh, what's that?" And she clung to my hand, half-frightened, as we came in sight of a hare, lying on its side with legs stretched out, just in the entrance to the wood.

"It's a hare, my child. Perhaps it's asleep."

"No, it isn't asleep," Sylvie said, timidly going nearer to look at it: "it's eyes are open. Is it——is it——" her voice dropped to an awe-struck whisper, "is it dead, do you think?"