EFTA00281197.pdf

EFTA00281197  For Audrey, Lark and Lea With Love • t the far end of town TM sr O 1971 by Dr. Sews Enterprises,. where the Grickle-grass grows All rights reserved under Intemationd and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United Stares by Random Howe, Inc., New York, and the wind smells slow-and-sour when it blows and simultmeously in Canada by Random Howe of Canada Limited, Toronto. and no birds ever sing excepting old crows... Thu oak was originally ratalogni Ay the librey oftapas es felkrx Geisel, Theodor Sews, 1904— The Lora:, by Dr. Sews. New York, Random Howe (1971) (70) problem. is the Street of the Lifted Lorax. p. col. illus. 29 cm. SUMMARY: The Once.kr describes the malts of the local pollution f 1. Stories in rhyme) I. Tirle. P7.9.3.G27610 It) 74.158378 ISBN: 0-39442337-0 (trade) ; 0-394-92337-5 (lib. bag.) Manufactured in the United States of America 45 46 47 48 49 511 EFTA00281198  = - - -- — And deep in the Grickle-grass, some people say, if you look deep enough you can still see, today, where the Lorax once stood just as long as it could before somebody lifted the Lorax away. ( 7 •' What was the Lorax? And why was it there? tch' V._ -;- •• • And why was it lifted and taken somewhere •. from the far end of town where the Grickle-grass grows? • .-71T-71 The old Once-ler still lives here. _ - • Ask him. He knows. / ' \///l Af-7„if-DVAat 11:(0j ANA I\ 1 12 ‘ \\ kit Ifitgifr . \\IAl'A.-; \./// A c- EFTA00281199 You won't see the Once-ler. Don't knock at his door. He stays in his Lerkim on top of his store. He lurks in his Lerkim, cold under the roof, where he makes his own clothes out of miff-muffered moof. And on special dank midnights in August, he peeks out of the shutters and sometimes he speaks and tells how the Lorax was lifted away. He'll tell you, perhaps... if you're willing to pay. EFTA00281200 On the end of a rope he lets down a tin pail and you have to toss in fifteen cents and a nail and the shell of a great-great-great- grandfather snail. - I EFTA00281201  Then he hides what you paid him away in his Snuvv, his secret strange hole in his gruvvulous glove. Then he pulls up the pail, makes a most careful count to see if you've paid him the proper amount. Then he grunts, "I will call you by Whisper-ma-Phone, for the secrets I tell are for your ears alone." EFTA00281202 SLUPP! Down slupps the Whisper-ma-Phone to your ear and the old Once-ler's whispers are not very clear, since they have to come down through a snergelly hose, and he sounds as if he had smallish bees up his nose. "Now I'll tell you,"he says, with his teeth sounding gray, "how the Lorax got lifted and taken away... It all started way back... such a long, long time back... EFTA00281203 Way back in the days when the grass was still green and the pond was still wet and the clouds were still clean, and the song of the Swomee-Swans rang out in space... one morning, I came to this glorious place. And I first saw the trees! The Truffula Trees! The bright-colored tufts of the Truffula Trees! Mile after mile in the fresh morning breeze. EFTA00281204 ()NC. wA From the rippulous pond came the comfortable sound of the Humming-Fish humming while splashing around. And, under the trees, I saw Brown Bar-ba-loots frisking about in their Bar-ba-loot suits as they played in the shade and ate Truffula Fruits. EFTA00281205  I felt a great leaping of joy in my heart. I knew just what. do! I unloaded my cart. Hx But those trees! Those trees! Those Truffula Trees! All my life been searching for trees such as these. The touch of their tufts was much softer than silk. And they had the sweet smell of fresh butterfly milk. EFTA00281206 In no time at all, I had built a small shop. Then I chopped down a Truffula Tree with one chop. And with great skillful skill and with great speedy speed, I took the soft tuft. And I knitted a Thneed! EFTA00281207  ( /z O O •,r ":"•-• The instant finished, I heard a ga-Zump! I looked. He was shortish. And oldish. I saw something pop out of the stump And brownish. And mossy. of the tree chopped down. It was sort of a man. And he spoke with a voice Describe him? ... That's hard. I don't know if I can. that was sharpish and bossy. EFTA00281208 "Mister!" he said with a sawdusty sneeze, "I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues. And.. asking you, sir, at the top of my lungs"— he was very upset as he shouted and puffed — "What's that THING you've made out of my Truffula tuft?" EFTA00281209 "Look, Lorax," I said. "There's no cause for alarm. I chopped just one tree. I am doing no harm. being quite useful. This thing is a Thneed. A Thneed's a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need! It's a shirt. It's a sock. It's a glove. It's a hat. But it has other uses. Yes, far beyond that. You can use it for carpets. For pillows! For sheets! Or curtains! Or covers for bicycle seats!" The Lorax said, "Sir! You are crazy with greed. There is no one on earth who would buy that fool Thneed!" EFTA00281210 But the very next minute I proved he was wrong. For, just at that minute, a chap came along, and he thought that the Thneed I had knitted was great. He happily bought it for three ninety-eight. I laughed at the Lorax, "You poor stupid guy! You never can tell what some people will buy." EFTA00281211  "busy," I told him. i "Shut up, if you please." I rushed 'cross the room, and in no time at all, built a radio-phone. I put in a quick call. I called all my brothers and uncles and aunts and I said, "Listen here! Here's a wonderful chance for the whole Once-ler Family to get mighty rich! Get over here fast! Take the road to North Nitch. Turn left at Weehawken. Sharp right at South Stitch." \ "I repeat," cried the Lorax, "I speak for the trees!" EFTA00281212 And, in no time at all, in the factory I built, the whole Once-ler Family was working full tilt. We were all knitting Thneeds just as busy as bees, to the sound of the chopping of Truffula Trees. EFTA00281213  • II ' Then ... So I quickly invented my Super-Axe-Hacker Oh! Baby! Oh! which whacked off four Truffula Trees at one smacker. How my business did grow! We were making Thneeds Now, chopping one tree four times as fast as before! at a time And that Lorax?... was too slow. He didn't show up any more. EFTA00281214 But the next week he knocked on my new office door. He snapped, . the Lorax who speaks for the trees which seem to be chopping as fast as you please. But . also in charge of the Brown Bar-ba-loots who played in the shade in their Bar-ba-loot suits and happily lived, eating Truffula Fruits. "NOW...thanks to your hacking my trees to the ground, there's not enough Truffula Fruit to go 'round. And my poor Bar-ba-loots are all getting the crummies because they have gas, and no food, in their tummies! EFTA00281215  '*6ko,t) I, the Once-ler, felt sad as I watched them all go. BUT... "They loved living here. But I can't let them stay. business is business! They'll have to find food. And I hope that they may. And business must grow Good luck, boys," he cried. And he sent them away. regardless of crummies in tummies, you know. EFTA00281216 THNEEz 1, 1 I meant no harm. I most truly did not. But I had to grow bigger. So bigger I got. I biggered my factory. I biggered my roads. I biggered my wagons. I biggered the loads of the Thneeds I shipped out. I was shipping them forth to the South! To the East! To the West! To the North! I went right on biggering . ..selling more Thneeds. And I biggered my money, which everyone needs. EFTA00281217 --- Then again he came back! I was fixing some pipes when that old-nuisance Lorax came back with more gripes. "I am the Lorax," he coughed and he whiffed. He sneezed and he snuffled. He snarggled. He sniffed. "Once-ler!" he cried with a cruffulous croak. "Once-ler! You're making such smogulous smoke! My poor Swomee-Swans... why, they can't sing a note! No one can sing who has smog in his throat. EFTA00281218  "Where will they go?... "And so," said the Lorax, I don't hopefully know. "—please pardon my cough— the cannot live here. They may have to fly for a month ...or a year... So El sending them off. To escape from the smog you've smogged-up around here. EFTA00281219 "What's more," snapped the Lorax. (His dander was up.) "Let me say a few words about Gluppity-Glupp. Your machinery chugs on, day and night without stop making Gluppity-Glupp. Also Schloppity-Schlopp. And what do you do with this leftover goo?... I'll show you. You dirty old Once-ler man, you! EFTA00281220 "You're glumping the pond where the Humming-Fish hummed! No more can they hum, for their gills are all gummed. So. sending them off. Oh, their future is dreary. They'll walk on their fins and get woefully weary in search of some water that isn't so smeary." EFTA00281221 And then I got mad. I got terribly mad. I yelled at the Lorax, "Now listen here, Dad! All you do is yap-yap and say, 'Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad!' Well, I have my rights, sir, and ■ telling you I intend to go on doing just what I do! And, for your information, you Lorax, ■ figgering on biggering and BIGGERING and BIGGERING and BIGGERING, turning MORE Truffula Trees into Thneeds which everyone, EVERYONE, EVERYONE needs!" EFTA00281222  ••• And at that very moment, we heard a loud whack! From outside in the fields came a sickening smack of an axe on a tree. Then we heard the tree fall. The very last Truffula Tree of them all! EFTA00281223 77- tt . -- No more trees. No more Thneeds. No more work to be done. Now all that was left 'neath the bad-smelling sky So, in no time, my uncles and aunts, every one, was my big empty factory... all waved me good-bye. They jumped into my cars the Lorax. .. and drove away under the smoke-smuggered stars. and I. irg EFTA00281224  The Lorax said nothing. Just gave me a glance . .. just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance .. . as he lifted himself by the seat of his pants. And never forget the grim look on his face when he heisted himself and took leave of this place, through a hole in the smog, without leaving a trace. THNEEJ)6 EFTA00281225  And all that the Lorax left here in this mess was a small pile of rocks, with the one word ... "UNLESS." Whatever that meant, well, I just couldn't guess. 1 _n n That was long, long ago. But each day since that day I've sat here and worried and worried away. Through the years, while my buildings 11 have fallen apart, LE 5 ,, nsiAl -I :: A• ,„ .-4 ' ,••4..- , . I've worried about it with all of my heart. t • l lz , I • , -... * - - '4 1 • : t 'Arr ." t 4 • •. / • r. 1 • • . • • V • • . • ! N.1 4/ >- 2 - . EFTA00281226  e ONCE -LER "But now," says the Once-ler, "Now that you're here, the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear. UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. EFTA00281227  "SO... Catch!" calls the Once-ler. He lets something fall. "It's a Truffula Seed. It's the last one of all! You're in charge of the last of the Truffula Seeds. And Truffula Trees are what everyone needs. Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care. Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air. Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack. Then the Lorax and all of his friends may come back." 0 EFTA00281228