Esio Trot
Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake
Language: English
Pages: 96
ISBN: 0142413828
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
An ancient spell, 140 tortoises, and a little bit of magic…
Mr. Hoppy is in love with his neighbor, Mrs. Silver; but she is in love with someone else—Alfie, her pet tortoise. With all her attention focused on Alfie, Mrs. Silver doesn’t even know Mr. Hoppy is alive. And Mr. Hoppy is too shy to even ask Mrs. Silver over for tea. Then one day Mr. Hoppy comes up with a brilliant idea to get Mrs. Silver's attention. If Mr. Hoppy's plan works, Mrs. Silver will certainly fall in love with him. After all, everyone knows the way to a woman’s heart is through her tortoise.
gorgeous!” Mrs Silver said, looking up and beaming at him. “Absolutely gorgeous,” Mr Hoppy said, not meaning it. And now, as he looked down at Mrs Silver’s smiling face gazing up into his own, he thought for the thousandth time how pretty she was, how sweet and gentle and full of kindness, and his heart ached with love. “I do so wish he would grow a little faster,” Mrs Silver was saying. “Every spring, when he wakes up from his winter sleep, I weigh him on the kitchen scales. And do you
afternoon in a shop that sold newspapers and sweets. That made things a lot easier for Mr Hoppy. So on that first exciting afternoon, after he had made sure that Mrs Silver had gone to work, Mr Hoppy went out onto his balcony armed with his long metal pole. He called this his tortoise-catcher. He leaned over the balcony railings and lowered the pole down onto Mrs Silver’s balcony below. Alfie was basking in the pale sunlight over to one side. “Hello Alfie,” Mr Hoppy said. “You are about to go
trying it,” Mrs Silver said. “But look here, I wouldn’t want him to get titchy small all over again, Mr Hoppy.” “He won’t, dear lady, he won’t,” Mr Hoppy said. “Say it only tonight and tomorrow morning and then see what happens. We might be lucky.” “If it works,” Mrs Silver said, touching him softly on the arm, “then you are the cleverest man alive.” The next afternoon, as soon as Mrs Silver had gone to work, Mr Hoppy lifted the tortoise up from her balcony and carried it inside. All he had
family pet, and Roberta reckons that by now he must be about thirty years old. It has taken him all that time to grow to twice the size he was when Mrs Silver had him. But he made it in the end.
this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content. Table of Contents Author’s Note Esio Trot Author’s Note Some years ago, when my own children were small, we usually kept a tortoise or two in the garden. In those days, a pet tortoise was a common sight crawling about on the family lawn or in the backyard. You could buy them quite cheaply