“Matilda told such Dreadful Lies,
It made one Gasp and Stretch one's Eyes;
Her Aunt, who from her Earliest Youth,
Had kept a Strict Regard for Truth,
Attempted to Believe Matilda:
The effort very nearly killed her.”

— Hilaire Belloc , book Cautionary Tales for Children

"Matilda, Who Told Lies, and Was Burned to Death"
Cautionary Tales for Children (1907)

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Hilaire Belloc 91

writer 1870–1953

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