WEBVTT

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I want to read one
more piece of prose.

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And then a few poems from
the last published book.

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And one or two from
the last winter

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that are not
published to end with.

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But the piece of prose
is called a miser.

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And it's from a book of
prose that's supposed

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to come out later this year.

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A man was able to get hold of
all the laughter in the world.

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And he packed it tightly and
locked it up in his house

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and hid the key.

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The trouble was that
nobody missed it.

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He had to tell them
what they were missing.

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Nobody knew what he
was talking about.

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Nobody believed him.

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Nobody thought that what he
was talking about was real.

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Who could believe
that after all?

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Would anyone believe
it if someone

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came up and said they had
all the laughter in the world

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locked up somewhere?

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Would anyone believe it, even
if neither of them laughed?

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He tried to describe
laughter to them.

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He showed them how it was done.

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He showed different
ways in which

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different people could laugh.

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He told them all the things
that made people do everything

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he could remember or invent.

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People falling down.

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Filth.

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People making terrible mistakes.

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People unable to
control themselves.

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Misfortunes of all kinds.

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People with something
the matter with them.

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No interest.

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He told them that it would
be good for their health

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and that he would not make
it expensive for them.

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No interest.

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There were many things about
it that he didn't even know,

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he said.

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No interest.

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It had been called
divine, he said.

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No interest.

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But the man kept on trying
because at least at night, he

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could always go home
and take out the key

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and open up some and have
a good laugh to himself.

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But then one night, he
started to laugh at himself

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and that made him lonely.

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He tried to invite
somebody else in to laugh.

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But it was very hard.

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He even said he would
give the laughter away.

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If that somebody else laughed.

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So that person
remembered how to laugh.

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So that person was on his side.

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They were laughing together.

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Somebody else was
laughing with him.

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But that meant that
somebody else had some

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of the laughter in the world.

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So he started making
plans to steal it.

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But the other person
kept giving it away.

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