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T H E     S NATCHED     B OY
	He was such an angel that he was dubbed his mother's blue-eyed boy. Everyone admired his good manners, his charming heartiness and his whopping kindness. So many ones would have enjoyed to get him as their own son ! It was precisely the case of a young women in the neighbourhood, she was really dying to abduct him, she just feared the legal proceedings. But she succeeded to foment a fiendish plan. She snatched the little boy from her family and immediately travelled far away with him. They arrived finally in another land, where she was sure no one would ever cause her any problem with this child who was henceforth hers. Though he was too young to really understand anything, the little boy knew deep inside of him that something wrong had happened. That explained his continuous desolation. He was as kind as he had always been, he did everything his new mother wanted, but sadness never left his eyes. Hither and thither a stealthy joyful light appeared on his face, but jollity never managed to dispel the haze his tears generated. For he was on the verge of weeping nearly all day long, but he was waiting the night to come to let the tears inundate his eyes. Once he was sitting alone in the land of Nod, shedding a barrage of tears - like every night. A gentle voice made him wince. He looked around and saw a little dog near him - a mongrel who wasn't much to look at, but his eyes appeared so kind, his voice sounded so benevolent, that the little boy agreed to answer and recounted to the little dog what made him cry. The gentle dog was touched and decided to help his new friend. He explained him that all the dogs can scent any track, and so that he could find the right way which would lead them to his family - to his real mother, this mother he was mourning for. The little boy trusted him immediately, not the ghost of a dubiety had ever crossed his mind. So they began together to search the way that would drive them to the beloved abode. Then the Guardians of the land of Nod told them that it was time to leave - and so come back to earth. But his life changed after that meeting, for every night the little boy and the little dog joined the precise place they left the previous night, on this long road that would lead them to the final destination. And at last one night this way of the land of Nod made the dream turn into reality : the little boy recognized immediately his house. His parents were mourning him so deeply that their faces were utterly transformed by pain. A split second was enough to throw the little boy into the arms of her mother, while all the faces were beaming with joy, and even the dog's one. The Guardians of the land of Nod found the little boy in his mother's arms when it was time to leave. The little boy understood what that would mean : he would lose his real mother to join again the kidnapper. He besought the Guardians to let him stay in the land of Nod, his both parents and the little dog implored too, and their entreaty was so rousing that the guardians took pity on them and accepted. Then the little dog asked to stay with them too, and all agreed. 02/09/10 Isabelle Coquinot