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I

CORALINE DISCOVERED THE DOOR a little while after they moved into the house

It was a very old house—it had an attic under the roof and a cellar under the ground and an overgrown garden with huge old trees in it

Coraline’s fa for that Instead they owned part of it

There were other people who lived in the old house

Miss Spink and Miss Forcible lived in the flat below Coraline’s, on the ground floor They were both old and round, and they lived in their flat with a nuhland terriers who had names like Hamish and Andrew and Jock Once upon a time Miss Spink and Miss Forcible had been actresses, as Miss Spink told Coraline the first time she met her

“You see, Caroline,” Miss Spink said, getting Coraline’s na, “both myself and Miss Forcible were famous actresses, in our time We trod the boards, luvvy Oh, don’t let Haht with his tummy”

“It’s Coraline Not Caroline Coraline,” said Coraline

In the flat above Coraline’s, under the roof, was a crazy olda mouse circus He wouldn’t let anyone see it

“One day, little Caroline, when they are all ready, everyone in the whole world will see the wonders of my mouse circus You ask me why you cannot see it now Is that what you asked me?”

“No,” said Coraline quietly, “I asked you not to call me Caroline It’s Coraline”

“The reason you cannot see the mouse circus,” said the man upstairs, “is that the mice are not yet ready and rehearsed Also, they refuse to play the songs I have written for theo oompah oompah But the whiteof trying them on different types of cheese”

Coraline didn’t think there really was ait up

The day after they

She explored the garden It was a big garden: at the very back was an old tennis court, but no one in the house played tennis and the fence around the court had holes in it and the net had arden, filled with stunted, flyblown rosebushes; there was a rockery that was all rocks; there was a fairy ring, y brown toadstools which smelled dreadful if you accidentally trod on them

There was also a well On the first day Coraline’s familyCoraline how dangerous the as, and they warned her to be sure she kept away from it So Coraline set off to explore for it, so that she knehere it was, to keep away from it properly

She found it on the third day, in an overgrown meadow beside the tennis court, behind a clurass The well had been covered up by wooden boards, to stop anyone falling in There was a small knothole in one of the boards, and Coraline spent an afternoon dropping pebbles and acorns through the hole and waiting, and counting, until she heard the plop as they hit the water far below

Coraline also explored for ani, and a snakeskin (but no snake), and a rock that looked just like a frog, and a toad that looked just like a rock

There was also a haughty black cat, who sat on walls and tree stumps and watched her but slipped away if ever she went over to try to play with it

That was how she spent her first teeks in the house—exploring the garden and the grounds

Her mother made her come back inside for dinner and for lunch And Coraline had to make sure she dressed up warm before she went out, for it was a very cold su, every day until the day it rained, when Coraline had to stay inside