THE LITTLE GIRL

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 917.

After K. Mansfield

The little girl was afraid of her father and always tried to keep away from him. Every morning her father came into her room and gave her a kiss, to which she said, "Good­bye, father." And she was very glad when her father went away.

In the evening he came home and she heard his loud voice in the hall. "Bring my tea into the smoking-room... Hasn't the newspaper come yet?"

"Kezia," mother called to her, "if "you are a good girl you can come down and take off father's boots." Slowly the girl went down the stairs, more slowly across the hall and opened the smoking-room door.

Her father had his spectacles on¹ and looked at her over them, and the little girl was afraid.

"Well, Kezia, come here. Help me to take off these boots and take them outside. Have you been a good girl today?"

"I d-d-don know, father."

"You d-d-don't know? If you stutter like that mother will take you to the doctor."

¹ her father had his spectacles on — отец уже надел очки

She never stuttered with other people but only with her father, because then she was trying so hard to say the words properly.

"Here, Kezia, carry my cup. back to the table—carefully; your hands tremble like an old lady's. And try to keep your handkerchief in your pocket, not in your hand."

"Y-y-yes, father."

On Sundays she sat with him in church while he sang in a loud clear voice. He was so big—his hands and his neck and his mouth. She thought he was a giant.

On Sunday afternoons grandmother sent her down to the drawing-room to have a "nice talk" with father and mother. But the little girl always found that mother was reading a magazine and father, his handkerchief on his face,¹ was sleeping on the sofa. She sat down on the chair and watched him until he woke and asked the time. Then he looked at her and said, "Don't look at me so, Kezia. You look like a little brown owl."

One day, when she was ill, grandmother said, "Your father's birthday will be next week. Will you make him a beautiful pin-cushion for a present?"

The little girl worked hard and sewed three sides of the pin-cushion. But she did not know what to fill it with. That was the question... The grandmother was out in the garden, and she went into her mother's bedroom to look for something. On the table she found many sheets of fine paper, took them, tore them into small pieces, and filled her case, then she sewed the fourth side.

In the evening father came home and could not find his speech. He asked the servants—but nobody knew anything about it. Then mother came into Kezia's room.

"Kezia, I think you didn't see some papers on a table in our room?"

"Oh yes," she said. "I tore them up for my present."

"What!" cried mother. "Go to the drawing-room at once."

And she brought Kezia downstairs where father was pac­ing to and fro, his hands behind his back.²

"Well?" he said sharply.

¹ his handkerchief on his face — его лицо было закрыто носовым
платком (независимый причастный оборот, в котором опущено при­
частие being—his handkerchief being on his face)

² was pacing to and fro, his hands behind his back — ходил взад
и вперед, заложив руки за спину; см. ком. 1.

Mother explained.

Не stopped and looked at her child.

"Did you do that?"

"N-n-no," she answered.

"Mother," he said, "Bring me that pin-cushion and put the child to bed at once."

The little girl lay in bed and cried.

Then father came into the room with a ruler in his hands.

"I shall beat you for this," he said.

"Oh, no, no!" she cried.

"Sit up," he said, "and hold out your hands. You must know once and for all¹ not to touch what does not belong to you.",

"But it was for your b-b-birthday."

Down came the ruler on her little hands.²

Hours later, when the grandmother came into Kezia's room, the crying child asked, "What did God make fathers for?"

"Sleep, my child, you will forget all about it in the morn­ing. I tried to explain to father, but he didn't want to listen to me tonight."

But the child did not forget. When she saw father she al­ways put both hands behind her back and her cheeks became red.

The Macdonalds lived in the next house. They had five children. Kezia used to look³ through a hole in the fence. The children often played with their father. He put the little boy Mac on his back and two little girls ran round him and laughed.

Then she decided that there were different sorts of fathers.

Suddenly, one day, mother became ill, and she and grand­mother went to town.

The little girl was alone in the house with Alice, the serv­ant. That was all right in the daytime, but while Alice was putting her to bed she became suddenly afraid.

"What shall I do if I have a bad dream?" she asked. I often have bad dreams and then grandmother takes me into her bed. I can't stay in the dark."

¹ once and for all — раз и навсегда

² Down came the ruler on her little hands. — И на ее малень­кие ручки опустилась линейка. (Эмфатическая инверсия после наре­
чия down.)

³ used to look — обычно смотрела; см. ком. 2 стр. 18.

21 •

"Go to sleep, child," said Alice, "don't cry or you will wake your poor father."

But that night she had a bad dream and cried, "Grandma, grandma!"

When she woke she saw her father beside her bed, a lamp in his hand.

"What is the matter?" he said.

"Oh, a bad dream—I want grannie."

Father took her in his arms and carried her to the big bed­room. A newspaper was on the bed. He threw it on the floor, then carefully put the child into the bed and lay down beside her. Half asleep she moved close to him. Father was very tired and he slept before the little girl. "Poor father!" she thought. "Not so big after all¹ and there is nobody to look after him. And every day he must work and is too tired to be like Mr. Macdonald. How could I tear his papers..." She sighed..

"What is the matter?" asked father. "Another dream?"

"Oh," said the little girl, "my head is on your heart, I can hear it. What a big heart you have, father, dear."

THE RETURNED SOLDIER²