AUTHORSHIP

 YOU say that father writes a lot of books, but what he writes I don't understand.

 

He was reading to you all the evening, but could you really make out what he meant?

 

What nice stories, mother, you can tell us! Why can't father write like that, I wonder?

 

Did he never hear from his own mother stories of giants and fairies and princesses?

 

Has he forgotten them all?

 

Often when he gets late for his bath you have to go and call him an hundred times.

 

You wait and keep his dishes warm for him, but he goes on writing and forgets.

 

Father always plays at making books.

 

If ever I go to play in father's room, you come and call me, "what a naughty child!"

 

If I make the slightest noise, you say, "Don't you see that father's at his work?"

 

What's the fun of always writing and writing?

 

When I take up father's pen or pencil and write upon his book just as he does,--a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i,--why do you get cross with me, then, mother?

 

You never say a word when father writes.

 

When my father wastes such heaps¹ of paper, mother, you don't seem to mind at all.

 

But if I take only one sheet to make a boat with, you say, "Child, how troublesome you are!"

 

What do you think of father's spoiling² sheets and sheets of paper with black marks all over on both sides?

1 heaps   

adv. <口>很, 非常地 名词heap的复数形式

参考例句：

• They brought home heaps of travel brochures. 他们将成堆的旅行手册带回家。
• The machine flung up great heaps of earth. 这台机器抛起了大片的土。

2 spoiling   

v.变质( spoil的现在分词 )；损坏；毁掉；破坏

参考例句：

• You are spoiling this man's son. 贼夫人之子。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The murderer attempted to escape from law punishment by spoiling his own face. 那个杀人犯企图自毁容貌以逃脱法律的惩罚。 来自《简明英汉词典》