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The Hapless Child
Edward Gorey

The Hapless Child Cover

The Hapless Child

There was once a little girl named Charlotte Sophia.

The Hapless Child

Her parents were kind and well-to-do.

The Hapless Child

She had a doll whom she called Hortense.

The Hapless Child

One day her father, a colonel in the army, was ordered to Africa.

The Hapless Child

Several months later he was reported killed in a native uprising.

The Hapless Child

Her mother fell into a decline that proved fatal.

The Hapless Child

Her only other relative, an uncle, was brained by a piece of masonry.

The Hapless Child

Charlotte Sophia was left in the hands of the family lawyer.

The Hapless Child

He at once put her in a boarding school.

The Hapless Child

There she was punished by the teachers for things she hadn’t done.

The Hapless Child

Hortense was torn limb from limb by the other pupils.

The Hapless Child

During the day Charlotte Sophia hid as much as possible.

The Hapless Child

At night she lay awake weeping and weeping.

The Hapless Child

When she could bear it no longer she fled from the school at dawn.

The Hapless Child

She soon lost consciousness and sank to the pavement.

The Hapless Child

A man came and took the locket with her parents’ pictures inside.

The Hapless Child

Another man came from the opposite direction and carried her off.

The Hapless Child

He brought her to a low place.

The Hapless Child

He sold her to a drunken brute.

The Hapless Child

Charlotte Sophia was put to work making artificial flowers.

The Hapless Child

She lived on scraps and tap water.

The Hapless Child

From time to time the brute got the horrors.

The Hapless Child

Charlotte Sophia’s eyesight began to fail rapidly.

The Hapless Child

Meanwhile, her father, who was not dead after all, returned home.

The Hapless Child

Every day he motored through the streets searching for her.

The Hapless Child

At last the brute went off his head.

The Hapless Child

Charlotte Sophia, now almost blind, ran into the street.

The Hapless Child

She was at once struck down by a car.

The Hapless Child

Her father got out to look at the dying child.

The Hapless Child

She was so changed, he did not recognize her.

The Hapless Child

The end.

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