No Room

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  “Very sorry, sir,” again repeated the landlord: “but we really haven’t got a bed vacant in the whole house. In fact, we are putting two, and even three gentlemen in one bed, as it is.”  This staggered us for a bit. But Harris, who is an old traveller, rose to the occasion, and, laughing cheerily, said: “Oh, well, we can’t help it. We must rough it. You must give us a shake-down in the billiard-room.”  “Very sorry, sir. Three gentlemen sleeping on the billiard-table already, and two in the coffee-room. Can’t possibly take you in to-night.” Jerome K. Jerome, “Three Men In A Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)” Ch. 12 (1889) Artwork by Grok

The Nightingale

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 “And the Nightingale sang so gloriously that the tears came into the Emperor’s eyes, and the tears ran down over his cheeks; and then the Nightingale sang still more sweetly, that went straight to the heart.”

“The Nightingale” by Hans Christian Andersen (1805 - 1875) in The Harvard Classics.  Painting by Edmund Dulac.

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