`` Why , we shall be blocked up till spring ! '' cried they , with the hugest delight . `` What a pity that the house is too high to be quite covered up ! The little red house , down yonder , will be buried up to its eaves . '' `` You silly children , what do you want of more snow ? '' asked Eustace , who , tired of some novel that he was skimming through , had strolled into the play-room . `` It has done mischief enough already , by spoiling the only skating that I could hope for through the winter . We shall see nothing more of the lake till April ; and this was to have been my first day upon it ! Do n't you pity me , Primrose ? '' `` O , to be sure ! '' answered Primrose , laughing . `` But , for your comfort , we will listen to another of your old stories , such as you told us under the porch , and down in the hollow , by Shadow Brook . Perhaps I shall like them better now , when there is nothing to do , than while there were nuts to be gathered , and beautiful weather to enjoy . '' Hereupon , Periwinkle , Clover , Sweet Fern , and as many others of the little fraternity and cousinhood as were still at Tanglewood , gathered about Eustace , and earnestly besought him for a story . The student yawned , stretched himself , and then , to the vast admiration of the small people , skipped three times hack and forth over the top of a chair , in order , as he explained to them , to set his wits in motion . `` Well , well , children , '' said he , after these preliminaries , `` since you insist , and Primrose has set her heart upon it , I will see what can be done for you . And , that you may know what happy days there were before snowstorms came into fashion , I will tell you a story of the oldest of all old times , when the world was as new as Sweet Fern 's bran-new humming-top . There was then but one season in the year , and that was the delightful summer ; and but one age for mortals , and that was childhood . '' `` I never heard of that before , '' said Primrose . `` Of course , you never did , '' answered Eustace .
`` It shall be a story XXXXX what nobody but myself ever dreamed of , -- a Paradise of children , -- and how , by the naughtiness of just such a little imp as Primrose here , it all came to nothing . ''
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