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Chapter One
Where Is Stanley?
"Breakfast is ready, George. We must wake the boys," Mrs. Lambchop said to her husband.
Just then, Arthur Lambchop called from the bedroom he shared with his brother.
"Hey! Come here! Hey!"
Mr. and Mrs. Lambchop smiled, recalling another morning that had begun like this. An enormous bulletin board, they discovered, had fallen on Stanley during the night, leaving him unhurt but no more than half an inch thick.
And so he had remained until Arthur blew him round again, weeks later, with a bicycle pump.
"Hey!" The call came again. "Are you coming? Hey!"
Mrs. Lambchop held firm views about good manners and correct speech. "Hay is for horses, not people, Arthur," she said as they entered the bedroom. "As well you know."
"Excuse me," said Arthur. "The thing is, I can hear Stanley, but I can't find him!"
Mr. and Mrs. Lambchop looked about the room. A shape was visible beneath the covers of Stanley's bed, and the pillow was squashed down, as if a head rested upon it. But there was no head.
"Why are you staring?" The voice was Stanley's.
Smiling, Mr. Lambchop looked under the bed but saw only a pair of slippers and an old tennis ball. "Not here," he said.
Arthur put out a hand, exploring. "Ouch!" said Stanley's voice. "You poked my nose!"
Arthur gasped.
Mrs. Lambchop stepped forward. "If I may...?" Gently,using both hands, she felt about.
A giggle rose from the bed. "That tickles!"
"Oh, my!" said Mrs. Lambchop.
She looked at Mr. Lambchop and he at her, as they had during past great surprises. Stanley's flatness had been the first of these. Another had come the evening they discovered a young genie, Prince Haraz, in the bedroom with Stanley and Arthur, who had accidentally summoned him from a lamp.
Mrs. Lambchop drew a deep breath. "We must face facts, George. Stanley is now invisible."
"You're right!" said a startled voice from the bed. "I can't see my feet! Or my pajamas!"
"Darndest thing I've ever seen," said Mr. Lambchop. "Or not seen, I should say. Try some other pajamas, Stanley."
Stanley got out of bed and put on different pajamas, but these too vanished, reappearing only when he took them off. It was the same with the shirt and trousers he tried on next.
"Gracious!" Mrs. Lambchop shook her head. "How are we to keep track of you, dear?"
"I know!" said Arthur. Untying a small red balloon, a party favor, that floated above his bed, he gave Stanley the string to hold. "Try this," he said.
The string vanished, but not the balloon.
"There!", said Mrs. Lambchop. "At least we can tell, approximately, where Stanley is. Now let's all have breakfast. Then, George, we must see what Dr. Dan makes of this."
