CHAPTER X THE CHILDREN'S HOUR

Mr. Fox had a large house-party at Shortleas for a week's shooting, and he asked Tom and Beatrice to come and bring Auntie May, and stay three days. Beatrice wanted to accept, so Mrs. Gilmour agreed to stay and look after the children.

 

'He doesn't ask Loki!' said Beatrice slily. 'Can you possibly do without him for a week, May?'

 

'I can take care of him,' said Rosamond eagerly, 'and he can sleep on my bed, can't he?'

 

'And on mine too,' pleaded Amerye.

 

Kitty said nothing. She knew she wouldn't be trusted to have a cat or anything else on her bed.

 

'We will take him on alternate nights, Amerye,' said Rosamond, and so that was settled. Beatrice and Tom and Auntie May drove over to Shortleas in the dog-cart. Auntie May looked far sorrier to leave me than glad to go to stay with Mr. Fox. She has never liked him really since he didn't bear to be in the same room with her cat.

 

Then the children solemnly took possession of me, and Rosamond prevented them from hugging me and lifting me. She never allowed anybody to do that but herself. She is a domineering little thing. I lived in the schoolroom all day, and went up to bed with them at eight. Miss Grueber went up too with them to their rooms, and they had bed drill. It was very odd. They undressed by drill, they had brushing-teeth drill, they had health-exercises drill. I wondered if they would have prayers drill, but they did that alone, without Miss Grueber, all kneeling down by the side of their beds, and tucking their nightgowns carefully under their toes for fear I were to play with them and distract them, which I certainly should have done, because they were quite pink.

 

The brushing-teeth drill was very funny. One, pour water in the glass! Two, lid off box of tooth-powder! Three, dip brush in glass! Four, dip brush in tooth-powder! Five, scrub! Repeat five times! Then, Listerine!

 

They had separate beds, at least Kitty's was not much more than a crib, she was so little. The moment Fraülein Grueber had gone they all three got into the same—Rosamond's or Amerye's, there was a different hostess each night. Then they babbled¹ for an hour or so, till they fell asleep. They called it an hour, but children always exaggerate, and I don't believe it was more than twenty minutes. They discussed everything, all the things that had been discussed before them, and whispered before them, and said when they were out of the room even—they seemed to have heard and to know everything. Rosamond snubbed Amerye because she had been to stay in London with Auntie May five times, while Amerye had only been three times. They both snubbed Kitty because she had never been to London at all. They found her very convenient, because she was supposed to want to know things, and gave them a chance of talking about London. She knew that, and sometimes teased them by saying that she didn't want to hear anything about the horrid² place where she had never been.

 

Amerye began like this:

 

'Do you know that when I was in London—?'

 

'Of course we know. Go on.'

 

'Well, when I was in London I went to Everyman.'

 

'Were taken, you mean.'

 

'Went to a play called Everyman, and I cried, and Auntie May cried, and Mr. What's-his-name cried. They both said it made them feel so wicked. It didn't make me feel wicked, only sad and hungry.'

 

'When I was in London,' said Rosamond, 'I went to see Henry Irving as Faust, and I had to go away to the very back of the box.'

 

'Why?' asked Kitty. 'Petticoat coming down, or sick?'

 

'No, neither, but because I was nervous.'

 

'Nervous! Pooh! It was because you were afraid of the devil, you said last time.'

 

'So I was, till I found out it was Sir Henry Irving, and then I liked him and came back to the front seat again, and fell in love with him—'

 

'Fell in love with the devil? How could you?'

 

'Everybody does in London.'

 

'Now, Amerye, you tell us some more about London,' begged Kitty, whose business it was to keep the balance true between them.

 

'Well, I went to lunch in a restaurant with Auntie May, and had tournedos—that means turn your back.'

 

'What to?'

 

'The fire, of course, till they were done,' said Amerye quickly. 'They were all seamed across in bars. I ate two.'

 

'And what did you drink?'

 

'Ah—oh—lemonade. Auntie May had champagne³.'

 

'I've had champagne once—in London,' said Rosamond thoughtfully.

 

'How much?'

 

'Half a wine-glassful.'

 

'And how did you feel?'

 

'As if I should like to lay my head on somebody's shoulder and go to sleep.'

 

'That's being drunk.'

 

'That isn't a nice word to use, Amerye.'

 

'It is not a nice thing to be,' said Amerye severely⁴.

 

'Children! Children!' said Kitty. 'Tell us some more, Rosamond.'

 

'Last time I was in London,' began Rosamond eagerly, 'I sat to grandpapa with Petronilla on my lap.'

 

'Did you sit still?'

 

'I did, but Petronilla didn't. She wiggled and wobbled and made my hands simply ache. At last I got a ball of Auntie May's crewel wools to hold scrumped up into the shape of Petronilla. That was when he was doing my hands. I washed them first.'

 

'And is it like you—the portrait?'

 

'I don't know,' said Rosamond carelessly. 'Grandpapa keeps it in a corner with a lot of old easels and things on top of it. He is going to finish it, some day, when I'm altered. Now, Amerye, you can tell us about the Zoo.'

 

Amerye began in a great hurry, for fear, I suppose, Rosamond took back her permission.

 

'Well, when I was in London I was always asking Auntie May to take me to the Zoo—teased her, she said, and gave her no peace—and she kept putting off and putting off, saying she was too busy. She never seemed able to fix a day. But one afternoon when we were out paying calls—'

 

'I suppose she left you in the hall then? She did me sometimes.'

 

'Not often,' said Amerye, 'and if there were children in the call I always went up to them. We got into a bus—'

 

'Is that a kind of trap?' said Kitty.

 

'All carriages are traps, but all traps aren't carriages, dear Kitty,' said Rosamond. 'Don't interrupt till the end. Go on, Amerye.'

 

'We bundled along for many miles and then stopped at the garden gate of a house, and got out and paid a shilling and a sixpence and went in. It was a very railey garden with walks between, and I said, "Is it a long walk up to the house?" and Auntie May said it was. There were some long-legged birds walking in the grass beside us and some deer, but I didn't notice them much, for I was anxious to find out if any children were there. There were several gardeners in livery walking about. Then we came to a cage with some owls⁵ in it bobbing up and down—'

 

'Like that dear brown one,' said Kitty, 'that lived in the crooked⁶ tree for three months and then went to the devil, father said.'

 

'And I said to Auntie May, "Your friends seem very fond of animals," and she said, "Oh yes, perfectly⁷ mad on beasts, they are!" Then we went under a low archway, and there we met two lots of children carrying buns, and I must say I thought them very rude carrying away their teas like that. But I said nothing out loud, only I hoped I should be allowed to go up to nursery tea at the house, as there seemed quite a lot of children about, and it would be fun—'

 

'Now you have gone on long enough,' said Rosamond. 'Tell her what it was.'

 

'It was the Zoo. For I then saw a camel and a bear much too large for any private house, and I said to Auntie May, "Oh, Auntie May, you have brought me to the Zoo after all."'

 

'I love that story,' said Kitty. 'And then tell how a man gave you some monstrous⁸ biscuits for the bears and Auntie May gave him sixpence. And how then you met a man who was king of the Zoo!'

 

'Yes,' said Amerye, 'and he gave the bears some Nestlé's milk, and let Auntie May have a baby wolf to hold in her arms. Its mother seemed a very nice collie dog, like Meg. And then—and then'—(Kitty shrieked⁹ with delight)—'he went into the cage beside a Snow leopard¹⁰, a thing just like a large cat—'

 

It was here that I got so excited that I leaped up on to the bed on to the top of them.

 

'Oh, here's dear Loki! Come up, Loki, and hear about the leopard. Make yourself comfortable, and if you must stick your claws in and out, do it where the clothes are thickest, that is all we ask you. Go on, Amy.'

 

'This man went in and the leopard was asleep in a corner. He climbed up a sort of tree and pulled its legs.'

 

'Brave man! Didn't he spoil his clothes and get scolded?'

 

'Yes, jolly well scolded by his wife who stayed outside. He said it didn't matter, for this little game would soon have to come to an end, for the leopard was getting a big boy now. It came after him rubbing about like a cat, and it lay down all curly, and invited him to play with it, and nipped the edge of his trousers, and he took it up all of a piece, as we take up Loki, and it crowded all over him, but it was happiest biting his legs and his hand. Then it got wilder and wilder and wanted him to roll over too, and he got frightened and he came out, and his wife dusted the sawdust off him.'

 

'Is that all the leopard?' asked Kitty.

 

'Yes, that is all. I wish there was some more for Loki's sake. I must not tell you about the kangaroos with their children in their pockets coming hopping¹¹ across the ground up to us, it will bore poor Loki—oh, I'll tell you about the cat-house, where I saw the very king of cats that lived in Egypt and was praised.'

 

'How praised?' asked Kitty.

 

'Why, put on a high chair and said prayers to. That's praised. The man and Auntie May were talking about them and saying that they were an ugly breed of cats to be set above all the others—why, Kitty, you're asleep! You are rude!'

 

'No, I'm not,' said Kitty. 'I am only pretending.'

 

'Nonsense! You sound all bunged up with sleep,' said Rosamond, in a queer smothery tone. 'This is my bed and I want it myself. Hoof¹² her out, Amerye.'

 

'I'll go of my own self,' said Kitty, 'because you're both getting dull. Good-night, you un-lovers.'

 

She slipped out and went back to her crib.

 

'I am rather tired, I see,' she said as she climbed in, dragging her legs after her. (I was too tired myself to go after them.) 'I'm a bit good-for-nothing, like mother. Good-night.'

 

Rosamond and Amerye had a fight as to which of them should have me, but I settled that by slipping away and finding a nice high undraughty place on the chiffonnier. They always absurdly imagine we want a bed. As it was quite dark, and they weren't allowed matches, Rosamond and Amerye gave up all hope of finding me, and went to sleep, and snored, a sound which is more like our purring than anything else I ever heard.

1 babbled   

v.喋喋不休( babble的过去式和过去分词 )；作潺潺声（如流水）；含糊不清地说话；泄漏秘密

参考例句：

• He babbled the secret out to his friends. 他失口把秘密泄漏给朋友了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She babbled a few words to him. 她对他说了几句不知所云的话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 horrid   

adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的

参考例句：

• I'm not going to the horrid dinner party.我不打算去参加这次讨厌的宴会。
• The medicine is horrid and she couldn't get it down.这种药很难吃，她咽不下去。

3 champagne   

n.香槟酒；微黄色

参考例句：

• There were two glasses of champagne on the tray.托盘里有两杯香槟酒。
• They sat there swilling champagne.他们坐在那里大喝香槟酒。

4 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

5 owls   

n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• 'Clumsy fellows,'said I; 'they must still be drunk as owls.' “这些笨蛋，”我说，“他们大概还醉得像死猪一样。” 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛
• The great majority of barn owls are reared in captivity. 大多数仓鸮都是笼养的。 来自辞典例句

6 crooked   

adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的

参考例句：

• He crooked a finger to tell us to go over to him.他弯了弯手指，示意我们到他那儿去。
• You have to drive slowly on these crooked country roads.在这些弯弯曲曲的乡间小路上你得慢慢开车。

7 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

8 monstrous   

adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的

参考例句：

• The smoke began to whirl and grew into a monstrous column.浓烟开始盘旋上升，形成了一个巨大的烟柱。
• Your behaviour in class is monstrous!你在课堂上的行为真是丢人！

9 shrieked   

v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She shrieked in fright. 她吓得尖叫起来。
• Li Mei-t'ing gave a shout, and Lu Tzu-hsiao shrieked, "Tell what? 李梅亭大声叫，陆子潇尖声叫：“告诉什么？ 来自汉英文学 - 围城

10 leopard   

n.豹

参考例句：

• I saw a man in a leopard skin yesterday.我昨天看见一个穿着豹皮的男人。
• The leopard's skin is marked with black spots.豹皮上有黑色斑点。

11 hopping   

n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The clubs in town are really hopping. 城里的俱乐部真够热闹的。
• I'm hopping over to Paris for the weekend. 我要去巴黎度周末。

12 hoof   

n.(马，牛等的)蹄

参考例句：

• Suddenly he heard the quick,short click of a horse's hoof behind him.突然间，他听见背后响起一阵急骤的马蹄的得得声。
• I was kicked by a hoof.我被一只蹄子踢到了。