Stuart Little by E. B. White, Garth Williams Read Free Book Online Page A

about
it. Open, please, Mr. Clydesdale.”
    Dr. Carey grabbed the tooth
with the pincers again, and this time he pulled so long and so hard and with
such determination that the tooth popped out, which was a great relief to
everybody, particularly to Mr. Clydesdale. The Doctor then led Stuart into
another room. From a shelf he took a tiny automobile, about six inches long—the
most perfect miniature automobile Stuart had ever seen. It was bright yellow
with black fenders, a streamlined car of graceful design. “I made this myself,”
Dr. Carey said. “I enjoy building model cars and boats and other things when I
am not extracting teeth. This car has a real gasoline motor in it. It has quite
a good deal of power—do you think you can handle it, Stuart?”
    “Certainly,” replied Stuart,
looking into the driver’s seat and blowing the horn. “But isn’t it going to
attract too much attention? Won’t everybody stop and stare at such a small automobile?”
    “They would if they could
see you,” replied Dr. Carey, “but nobody will be able to see you, or the car.”
    “Why not?” asked Stuart.
    “Because this automobile is
a thoroughly modern car. It’s not only noiseless, it’s invisible.
    Nobody can see it.”
    “I can see it,” remarked
Stuart.
    “Push that little button!”
said the Doctor, pointing to a button on the instrument panel. Stuart pushed
the button. Instantly the car vanished from sight.
    “Now push it again,” said
the Doctor.
    “How can I push it when I
can’t see it?” asked Stuart.
    “Feel around for it.”
    So Stuart felt around until
his hand came in contact with a button. It seemed like the same button, and
Stuart pushed it. He heard a slight grinding noise and felt something slip out
from under his hand.
    “Hey, watch out!” yelled Dr.
Carey. “You pushed the starter button. She’s off! There she goes! She’s away!
She’s loose in the room—now we’ll never catch her.” He grabbed Stuart up and
placed him on a table where he wouldn’t be hit by a runaway car.
    “Oh, mercy! Oh, mercy!” Stuart
cried when he realized what he had done. It was a very awkward situation.
Neither Dr. Carey nor Stuart could see the little automobile, yet it was rushing
all over the room under its own power, bumping into things. First there came a
crashing noise over by the fireplace. The hearth broom fell down. Dr. Carey
leapt for the spot and pounced on the place where the sound had come from. But
though he was quick, he had hardly got his hands on the place when there was
another crash over by the wastebasket. The Doctor pounced again. Pounce!
Crash! Pounce! Crash! The Doctor was racing all over the room, pouncing and
missing. It is almost impossible to catch a speedy invisible model automobile
even when one is a skillful dentist.
    “Oh, oh,” yelled Stuart,
jumping up and down. “I’m sorry, Dr. Carey, I’m dreadfully sorry!”
    “Get a butterfly net!”
shouted the Doctor.
    “I can’t,” said Stuart. “I’m
not big enough to carry a butterfly net.”
    “That’s true,” said Dr.
Carey. “I forgot. My apologies, Stuart.”
    “The car is bound to stop
sometime,” said Stuart, “because it will run out of gas.”
    “That’s true, too,” said the
Doctor. And so he and Stuart sat down and waited patiently until they no longer
heard any crashing sounds in the room. Then the Doctor got down on his hands and
knees and crawled cautiously all over, feeling here and there, until at last he
found the car. It was in the fireplace, buried up to its hubs in wood ashes.
The Doctor pressed the proper button and there it stood in plain sight again,
its front fenders crumpled, its radiator leaking, its headlights broken, its windshield
shattered, its right rear tire punctured, and quite a bit of yellow paint scratched
off the hood.
    “What a mess!” groaned the
Doctor. “Stuart, I hope this will be a lesson to you: never push a button on
an automobile unless you are sure of what you are