We shall be in less danger of hurting your feelings , by falling asleep at the most interesting points , -- as little Cowslip and I did last night ! '' `` Naughty Primrose , '' cried Cowslip , a child of six years old ; `` I did not fall asleep , and I only shut my eyes , so as to see a picture of what Cousin Eustace was telling about . His stories are good to hear at night , because we can dream about them asleep ; and good in the morning , too , because then we can dream about them awake . So I hope he will tell us one this very minute . '' `` Thank you , my little Cowslip , '' said Eustace ; `` certainly you shall have the best story I can think of , if it were only for defending me so well from that naughty Primrose . But , children , I have already told you so many fairy tales , that I doubt whether there is a single one which you have not heard at least twice over . I am afraid you will fall asleep in reality , if I repeat any of them again . '' `` No , no , no ! '' cried Blue Eye , Periwinkle , Plantain , and half a dozen others . `` We like a story all the better for having heard it two or three tunes before . '' And it is a truth , as regards children , that a story seems often to deepen its mark in their interest , not merely by two or three , but by numberless repetitions . But Eustace Bright , in the exuberance of his resources , scorned to avail himself of an advantage which an older story-teller would have been glad to grasp at . `` It would be a great pity , '' said he , `` if a man of my learning -LRB- to say nothing of original fancy -RRB- could not find a new story every day , year in and year out , for children such as you . I will tell you one of the nursery tales that were made for the amusement of our great old grandmother , the Earth , when she was a child in frock and pinafore . There are a hundred such ; and it is a wonder to me that they have not long ago been put into picture-books for little girls and boys . But , instead of that , old gray-bearded grandsires pore over them , in musty volumes of Greek , and puzzle themselves with trying to find out when , and how , and for what they were made . '' `` Well , well , well , well , Cousin Eustace ! '' cried all the children at once ; `` talk no more about your stories , but begin . '' `` Sit down , then , every soul of you , '' said Eustace Bright , `` and be all as still as so many mice . At the slightest interruption , whether from great , naughty Primrose , little Dandelion , or any other , I shall bite the story short off between my teeth , and swallow the untold part .
But , XXXXX the first place , do any of you know what a Gorgon is ? ''
At So as before for from if in over whether