Free A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket Page A

somewhere before." "Ballywot!" Sunny shrieked, which undoubtedly meant "She's Count Olaf in disguise!" "If you say so," Klaus said vaguely. "Oh, Klaus," Violet said miserably. "Sunny and I wasted time arguing with Shirley when we should have been rescuing you. You've been hypnotized again; I know it. Try to concentrate, Klaus. Try to remember what happened." "I broke my glasses," Klaus said slowly, "and then we left the lumbermill.... I'm very tired, Veronica. Can I go to bed?" "Violet," Violet said. "My name is Violet, not Veronica." "I'm sorry," Klaus said. "I'm just so tired." Violet opened the door of the building, and the three orphans stepped out onto the depressing street of Paltryville. Violet and Sunny stopped and remembered when they had first reached the lumbermill after getting off the train, and had seen the eye-shaped building. Their instincts had told them that the building was trouble, but the children had not listened to their instincts. They had listened to Mr. Poe. "We'd better take him to the dormitory," Violet said to Sunny. "I don't know what else we can do with Klaus in this state. Then we should tell Sir what has happened. I hope he can help us." "Guree," Sunny agreed glumly. The sisters led their brother through the wooden gates of the mill, and across the dirt-floored courtyard to the dormitory. It was almost suppertime, and when the children walked inside they could see the other employees sitting on their bunks and talking quietly among themselves. "I see you're back," one of the workers said. "I'm surprised you can show your faces around here, after what you did to Phil." "Oh, come now," Phil said, and the orphans turned to see him lying down on his bunk with his leg in a cast. "Klaus didn't mean to do it, did you, Klaus?" "Mean to do what?" Klaus asked quizzically, a word which here means "because he didn't know that he caused the accident that hurt Phil's leg." "Our brother is very tired," Violet said quickly. "How are you feeling, Phil?" "Oh, perfectly fine," Phil said. "My leg hurts, but nothing else does. I'm really quite fortunate. But enough about me. There's a memo that was left for you. Foreman Flacutono said it was very important." Phil handed Violet an envelope with the word "Baudelaires" typed on the front, just like the typed note of welcome the children had found on their first day at the mill. Inside the envelope was a note, which read as follows:
    Memorandum
    To: The Baudelaire Orphans
    From: Sir
    Subject: Today's Accident I have been informed that you caused an accident this morning at the mill that injured an employee and disrupted the day's work. Accidents are caused by bad workers, and bad workers are not tolerated at the Lucky Smells Lumbermill. If you continue to cause accidents I will be forced to fire you and send you to live elsewhere. I have located a nice young lady who lives in town who would be happy to adopt three young children. Her name is Shirley and she works as a receptionist. If the three of you continue to be bad workers, I will place you under her care.
    Chapter Ten
    Violet read the memo out loud to her siblings, and she didn't know whose reaction was more upsetting. As Sunny heard the bad news, she bit her lip in worry. Her tooth was so sharp that tiny drops of blood dribbled down her chin, and this was certainly upsetting. But Klaus didn't seem to hear the memo at all. He just stared into space, and this was worrisome as well. Violet put the memo back into the envelope, sat on the bottom bunk, and wondered what in the world she could do. "Bad news?" Phil said sympathetically. "Remember, sometimes something might seem like bad news, but it could turn out to be a blessing in disguise." Violet tried to smile at Phil, but her smiling muscles just stayed put. She knew or she thought she knew, anyway, because she was actually wrong that the only thing in disguise was Count Olaf. "We have to go see Sir," Violet said finally. "We have to explain to him what has