A Series of Unfortunate Events #4: The Miserable Mill

Being alive had never seemed lucky before, but as the children considered their terrible time in Sir’s care, they were amazed at how many lucky things had actually happened to them

Behind her false eyelashes, Shirley’s shiny eyes gazed at the Baudelaires as if she were going to eat them as soon as she got the opportunity.

I’m sorry to tell you that the orphans were wrong about boarding school being better, but at the moment they knew nothing of the troubles ahead of them, only of the troubles behind them, and the troubles that had escaped out the window

You must forgive the children,” Mr. Poe said. “They tend to see Count Olaf everywhere.”

“That’s because he is everywhere,” Klaus said bitterly

The word “dreadful,” even when used three times in a row, did not seem like a dreadful enough word to describe everything that had happened

Such was the case at this moment, for when Dr. Orwell stepped backward, she stepped into the path of the whirring saw, and there was a very ghastly accident indeed

gum up the works” does not actually have to do with gum, but merely refers to something that stops the progress of something else

How in the world did Violet do it? Klaus had a mild interest in mechanical things, but at heart he was a reader, not an inventor. He simply did not have Violet’s amazing inventing skills.

This is not the best way to read, of course, because you can make horribly wrong guesses, but it will do in an emergency.

Violet liked to read, of course, but at heart she was an inventor, not a researcher. She simply did not have Klaus’s amazing reading skills.