Dr. Seuss EFTA00281197

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For Audrey, Lark and Lea With Love IM & © 1971 by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, Mb All rights reserved under Incernacional and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. This title wos originally cataloged by the Library of Comgress as follows: Geisel, Theodor Seuss, 1904~ The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss. New York, Random House (1971) {70} p. col. illus. 29cm, SUMMARY: The Onct-ler describes the results of the local pollution problem. (1. Stories in chyme) I. Title, PZ8.3.G276Lo [E} 74-158378 ISBN; 0-394-82337-0 (trade) ; 0-394-92337-5 (lib. bdg.) Manufactured in the United States of America 45 46 47 48 49 SO EFTA00281198

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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. = WWZSTID b iad | | h my Ue Ua a AL What was the Lorax? And why was it there? a And why was it lifted and taken somewhere from the far end of town where the Grickle-grass grows? The old Once-ler still lives here. Ask him. He knows. yf, . ¢ | S 4 =| aN A Te Men he (4 = | y EFTA00281199 i

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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

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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- gtandfather snail. <= —_ = al Daw hte VGH. pe ASe7 SL = EFTA00281201

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Then he pulls up the pail, makes a most careful count to see if you've paid him the proper amount. Then he hides what you paid him away in his Snuvv, his secret strange hole in his gruvvulous glove. Then he grunts, “I will call you by Whisper-ma-Phone, for the secrets I tell are for your ears alone.” EFTA00281202

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| iN \ Wi ZY | WY 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

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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. y 4 a EFTA00281204

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I felt a great leaping of joy in my heart. I knew just what | do! I unloaded my cart. 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. f EFTA00281206

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* wwe ~ 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! -_=— = 7 N\\ ; N EFTA00281207

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a iwYFG 1 isn. EFTA00281208

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“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. AThneed’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

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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

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“Busy,” I told him. “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

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LI. PUGH ALLRED D5 | / u Ma = e x AL uu mslplpslnyia MOOI ATT WCET TEAL SMATELTI IST La OEM! 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. 4 EFTA00281213

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Then... Oh! Baby! Oh! How my business did grow! Now, chopping one tree at a time was too slow. So I quickly invented my Super-Axe-Hacker which whacked off four Truffula Trees at one smacker. We were making Thneeds four times as fast as before! And that Lorax?... He didn’t show up any more. EFTA00281214

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JONCE-LER-in Chief PRIVATE But the next week he knocked on my new office door. He snapped, ‘i the Lorax who speaks for the trees which you seem to be chopping as fast as you please. But a 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

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“They loved living here. But I can’t let them stay. They'll have to find food. And I hope that they may. Good luck, boys,” he cried. And he sent them away. I, the Once-ler, felt sad as I watched them all go. BUT... business is business! And business must grow regardless of crummies in tummies, you know. EFTA00281216

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6aeete,_ one Uirene® ; rr) | fom Metra oti fi. 3 q J wes 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

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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

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“Where will they go?... “And so,” said the Lorax, ~ Idon’t hopefully know. “—please pardon my cough— they cannot live here. They may have to fly for a month...or a year... So g sending them off. ' To escape from the smog you've smogged-up around here. EFTA00281219

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“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

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tou fe giun a They'll walk on their if L arcn of some water WH. EFTA00281221

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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 i 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

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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

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My cl without leaving a trace. just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance... when he heisted himself and took leave of this place, as he lifted himself by the seat of his pants. And I'll never forget the grim look on his face o ~~) ‘=| a — OQ e vo & vo > a oD ee 2) r=) Coed a0 5 a! ~ ° c ae) 3 ” * a ca fo} 4 Vv G = through a hole in the smog,

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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. 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 have fallen apart, I've worried about it with all of my heart. EFTA00281226

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“But now,” says the Onc “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.

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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.” EFTA00281228