“I would have sailed boats on it.” “Captained by Old Flopper, no doubt,” I replied. “And everything would have been happy and wonderful.” “No. Because I would have found you surly and willful and grim. Fairly grim.” “I would have found you frivolous and wished really hard for the turtles to scuttle your boat.” “If they did, I would just have rebuilt it even better and told everyone about the grim kid who talked to frogs.” I had never talked to the frogs; I despised anthropomorphizing animals. “So what has changed if we wouldn’t have liked each other as kids?” I asked. “Oh, I would have liked
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