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First published in 1962 Latest edition: 1995 Publisher: Baen Books Mass Market Paperback ISBN 0671876716 |
Excerpts At last I said, "UnkaTom? Tell me the Poddy story-- " "At your age?" "Please," I crawled up on his knees. "I want to sit in your lap once more and hear it. I need to." "All right," he said, and put his arm around me. "Once upon a time, long, long ago when the world was young, in a specially favored city there lived a little girl named Poddy. All day long she was busy like a ticking clock. Tick tick tick went her heels, tick tick tic went her knitting needles, and, most especially, tick tick tick went her busy little mind. Her hair was the color of butter blossoms in the spring when the ice leaves the canals, her eyes were the changing blue of sunshine playing down through the spring floods, her nose had not yet made up its mind what it would be, and her mouth was shaped like a question mark. She greeted the world as an unopened present and there was no badness in her anywhere. "One day Poddy--" I stopped him. "But I'm not young any longer . . . and I don't think the world was ever young!" "Here's my hankie," he said. "Blow your nose. I never did tell you the end of it, Poddy; you always fell asleep. It ends with a miracle." "A truly miracle?" "Yes. This is the end. Poddy grew up and had another Poddy. And then the world was young again." "Is that all?" "That's all there ever is. But it's enough."
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