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Read Ebook: A Gallery of Children by Milne A A Alan Alexander Willebeek Le Mair H Henri Tte Illustrator
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Ebook has 232 lines and 10539 words, and 5 pages
She practised now.
"Teddy!" she called.
Down on the floor, at the foot of her bed, Teddy-bear, whose head was nodding on his chest, woke up with a start.
"What is it?" he grumbled.
"Are you asleep, Teddy?"
"I are and I aren't," said Teddy.
"I forght I were, and I weren't," said Miss Waterlow.
"Well, well, what is it?"
"Condensedmilk," said Teddy.
"As near as you can get nowadays."
Miss Waterlow sighed. She never seemed to get very near.
"Perhaps I shall never tell them," said Miss Waterlow sadly. "Perhaps they don't have the word."
"I want a word--"
"Better go to sleep," said Teddy, his head nodding suddenly again.
"Shan't I ever be able to tell them?" asked Miss Waterlow wistfully.
"Never," said Teddy sleepily. "They've got the wrong words."
Miss Waterlow lay there, wrapt in drowsy and enchanted memories of that golden land to which she could never quite return. She would tell them all about it some day ... but not now ... not now ... not now....
She gave a little sigh, and was asleep.
SAND BABIES
They had never been to the seaside before, so you can imagine how pleased they were when Mr. Merryweather said, "I think we will go to the sea this summer, it will do the children good."
They all began to jump about and get very excited, all except John. John had heard about the sea, but he didn't quite believe it. So he said to his Father:
John kept his eyes on his Father, and said, "Do you weally?" And his Father said, "Yes, old boy, you do." Then John gave a great sigh of happiness and said, "I fort perhaps you did." And he walked round and round the garden, singing, "I'm going to thee the thea!"
Mary went off with her Mother to talk about what sort of clothes they would all want. Mary was ten; and when you are ten and the eldest, almost everything depends upon you. John was three and the youngest, and sometimes Mary was not quite sure whether she was John's mother or not. If you could have two mothers, then she was one of them.
"The great question," said Mr. Merryweather next day, "is, where shall we go?"
"Silly, of course we are," said Mary. "But there are lots of places by the sea. Let's go to a place where there are heaps of lovely shells."
"And sand," said Margaret.
"And rocks," said Joan. "And pools."
"SHELLS--SAND--ROCKS--POOLS," wrote Mr. Merryweather on his cuff. "Anything else?"
John tried to speak once or twice, but nothing happened.
"Yes, darling?" said his Mother.
"Thea," said John faintly.
Stephen was four. He thought a good deal, but never said anything, so if it hadn't been for Joan, nobody would ever have known what he wanted.
"Stephen wants the same as me, don't you, Stephen?" said Joan quickly.
Stephen nodded. He was thinking of something else.
So they waited till to-morrow. As soon as they had finished breakfast, and they were all too excited to eat much , Mary took them out. Mr. Merryweather stayed behind to read his paper, and Mrs. Merryweather stayed behind to see about dinner, because they knew they could trust Mary. Joan and Stephen walked in front, Joan chattering to Stephen, and Stephen thinking; then came Margaret, talking eagerly over her shoulder to Mary; and then came Mary holding John's hand, and saying, "We're nearly there, dear."
Suddenly they turned the corner, and there they were.
Stephen said nothing, of course.
And John opened his mouth to say something, turned very red, and burst into tears.
They were all very sorry for John--except Stephen, who was thinking of something else. The worst of it was that none of them knew what was the matter with him. Had he had too much breakfast? Or too little? Was he tired? Would he like Margaret to take him back? John couldn't tell them. He didn't know.
"What would you like to do, darling?" said Mary. "Shall we pick some lovely shells?"
John sniffed and nodded.
They went on to the beach. There were many other children there, but they were much too happy to take any notice of the Merryweather family.
"Well put them in my bag," said Mary. "Would you like to hold the bag, darling?"
"Yeth," said John meekly. Afraid to look at it again, he stood with his back to the sea, and dropped the shells into the bag as they were given to him. Why had the sea made him cry like that? He didn't know. Perhaps Stephen....
He looked at Stephen.
No, it was no good asking Stephen.
POOR ANNE
She was christened Anne Lavender, so that her full name was Anne Lavender Lavender. This was an idea of Mr. Lavender's. He was very proud of his family, and it distressed him to think that when his daughter, the beautiful Miss Lavender, married, her name might be something quite ugly, like Winks.
"Whereas," he explained to Anne's Mamma, "if we call her Anne Lavender Lavender, her name, when she marries this man Winks, will be Anne Lavender-Winks, and people will know at once that she is one of us."
"They will know that anyhow," said Mrs. Lavender, bending over her baby. "She is just like her old Daddy, aren't you, darling?"
Anne, being then about none, did not reply.
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