EIGHTH FORM

ʌa
кай
К УЧЕБНИКУ АНГЛИЙСКОГО
ЯЗЫКА
ДЛЯ VIII КЛАССА
ШКОЛ С УГЛУБЛЕННЫМ
ИЗУЧЕНИЕМ АНГЛИЙСКОГО
ЯЗЫКА
Составители В. Н. Богородицкая
В. Р. Трусова
Рекомендовано Министерством
народного образования
РСФСР
«ПРПСЙЕШЁНДО» 1989

ББК 81.2Англ-922
К 53
Рецензенты: учитель средней школы Р. М. Адлер (Москва),
учитель средней школы Т. Д. Антонова (Москва),
кандидат филологических наук (МГПИ им. В. И, Ленина) О. В, Афанасьева
„ 4306020000—401 ɪ
к “Лоз7оз5=89~ инф- письмо~89’ ™п- м ’
ББК 81.2Англ-922
ISBN 5-09-000661-Х
© Издательство «Просвещение», 1989

Dear friends,
We hope that you’re fond of reading, for books mean a lot to us
all. They make us think, suffer and laugh, they form our characters,
give us education and knowledge about the world around us.
We’ve selected several really good and witty stories by English
and American authors. Some of them, such as J. Al. Barrie, K. Ro¬
bertson, R. Bradbury and Ph. Pearce are very popular; others, such
as Al. Whitebird or Al. Calhoun are not as well-known, but all the
authors whose stories you’re going to read in this book have managed
to create intelligent and sincere pieces of writing. You’ll read about
some of them in the reference “Who’s Who” in the end of the book.
Having read the stories you’ll come to know about English and
American children, their school life, work, sports, leisure and holi¬
days. We hope you’ll find the stories exciting, interesting and. in¬
formative.
You’ll get to know about an Indian custom of Ta-Na-E-Ka, think
over the problems of the black children April and Rumshus, laugh
at the adventures of Henry Reed, enjoy the Halloween party planned
by Katie John.
Go ahead and enjoy yourselves!
Authors
3

UNIT 1
Read Pari I of the story The Great Balloon Ascension1 and answer the
questions: What did Henry Reed think of in order to help the army?
Did the children manage to launch the balloon after all?
THE GREAT BALLOON ASCENSION
(after Keith Robertson)
Henry Reed has come to spend the
summer with his aunt and uncle in
New Jersey. His teacher asked him
to write a record of his experiences.?
Part I
Tuesday, August 20th
I went to the library today and read everything that I could
find on balloons. It seems the Army and Navy and Air Force1 2 3 and the
weather service4 all use a lot of balloons. One of their troubles is
that if they send a balloon up with instruments, such as thermometers
[θə'mɔmɪtə] and barometers [bə'rɔmɪtə], half the time they never get
the balloon or the instruments back. Sometimes they send up bigger
balloons with all sorts of complicated radio equipment5 which auto¬
matically [p:tə'mætɪklɪ] sends back information. These are very ex¬
pensive and if there’s much of a wind they often lose these too. Then
1 ascension — подъем
2 a record of his experiences — запись своих впечатлений
s Navy and Air Force— морской флот и военно-воздушные силы
4 weather service — служба погоды
в complicated equipment — сложное оборудование
4

of course there are the biggest balloons, which go up with a gondola
l'gɔndələ] that will carry a man. Naturally they always take a lot of
precautions! with these because the men who go up want to come back
in one piece.1 2 They would not like to be lost with the balloon.
I’ve thought quite a bit about it and I’ve decided that I could do
everybody a great service3 if I could develop4 a medium-size balloon,
that would be very cheap but would carry some instrument which
would always get back. I have what I think is a brilliant l'brɪljənt]
idea. I can send up homing pigeons5 * in the balloon and they can fly
back. Of course a pigeon wouldn’t be able to carry a very heavy instru¬
ment, so any thermometers or barometers that were sent up with the
balloon would have to be small enough to be tied to the pigeon’s
leg, but if I can work out ail the other details the armed forces® must
think how to make small instruments.
A real trained homing pigeon would be best, naturally, but all
pigeons usually find their way back home. I am not going to waste time
finding just the right pigeon because! haven’t got much time. I have
to fly back home next week. Uncle Al got the ticket today. There’ll
be just time enough for me to finish my experiments lɪks'perɪmənt]
in space research7 with my plastic balloon.
1 precaution — предосторожность
2 to come back in one piece — вернуться целым и невредимым
3 to do somebody a great service — оказать кому-либо большую услугу
* to develop — зд. создавать
6 homing pigeons — почтовые голуби
® armed forces — вооруженные силы
7 research — исследование
5

I asked Uncle Al about the pigeons again at dinner tonight. He
says they would be able to find their way home from quite a distance.
I’m sure they’ll do and I’m going to go. as soon as it gets dark and
catch a good healthy one.
I told Midge about my idea today and she thinks it sounds wonder¬
ful. She was a little doubtful at first that we would be able to work
out all the details but before the day was over we had practically
everything figured out.1 In fact. I think we should be able to send
up our balloon tomorrow.
We took the pigeon that I caught last night and went down the
road with it, carrying it in a basket. Then we let it out. It flew
straight back home. I had put a red leg band1 2 * * around it so there
wasn’t any mistake. There it was sitting on top of the barn. If
I can, I’ll catch the same pigeon again tonight.
We found a round basket in ’didge’s basement. I built a small
cage for the pigeon. It has a little door that goes up and down. The
problem of how to let the pigeon out after he has been up in the air
for a while was a difficult one. And for a while I didn’t think we could
solve it. Midge gave me the idea.
“We’ll have to put the pigeon to sleep somehow,” she said. “Then
we can send an alarm clock up in the basket with him to wake him up
after he’s been up for half an hour.”
Of course she was joking but it gave me an idea. Aunt Mabel has
an old-fashioned round alarm clock upstairs in the guest room. She
didn’t want to part with it at first but I offered to buy it and final¬
ly she gave it to me. When the alarm goes off,8 the little handle1
on the back that you use to wind5 the alarm goes around and around. I
took a string and tied one end of it to the handle, and the other one to
the little door of my pigeon cage. When the alarm goes off it winds up
the string and it gradually raises the door. It lookes a bit complicat¬
ed and homemade but it works. Midge and I tried it three or four
times and it opened the door every time. We are all ready and tomor¬
row is the great day.
1 to figure out — продумывать, рассчитывать
2 band — тесьма
8 the alarm goes off — зд. звонит будильник
1 handle — ручка
6 to wind [waɪnd] — заводить (часы)'
6

Thursday, August 22nd
We had the great balloon ascension today. The balloon went up
and it came down. I don’t know whether you would call it a success1
or not because it didn’t work out exactly as Midge and I had planned.
I don’t think we will be as famous as I had hoped, but it isn’t really
our fault.1 2 The best way to explain just why the experiment wasn’t
completely successful is to tell everything that happened today.
It took us much longer to get the balloon ready than we had ex¬
pected. There was a lot of work and also we had some interruptions.
We spent a good part of the morning chasing 3 Mr. Baines’s sheep. We
were busy working on the balloon, when suddenly these sheep walked
through the woods and stood there staring at us.
They weren’t bothering us so we let them graze,4 but then they
went toward the road. Three of them started across just as a big green
car came by. It was moving very fast and the driver didn’t even slow
down. The sheep might be killed on the road.
We went across the street and tried to call Mr. Baines but no one
answered the phone. I don’t know whether he was away or out in the
fields.
We went back to see what had happened to the sheep but when we
arrived they had disappeared. We thought they had gone back where
they came from but a few minutes later we heard a “baa".
“They’re over at Apple’s,” said Midge.
I wanted to see exactly what Mr. Apple would do when he discov¬
ered the sheep and we took time out to go over to Mr. Apple’s house.
The sheep weren’t in the front yard so we went on back and saw them
in the back yard. There were the sheep, all eight of them, inside the
wire fence that Mr. Apple had built. The gate had evidently been
left open and they had simply walked in.
“I wonder why he hasn’t noticed them,” I said.
“I know,” said Midge. “They aren’t home. I saw them driving out
in their car right after breakfast this morning.”
“If those sheep go into the front yard they’ll eat all the flowers,”
I said. “Maybe I ought to close that gate. They can’t do any harm in
there.”
1 success — успех
2 it isn’t really our fault — это произошло не по нашей вине
9 to chase — гнаться
4 to graze — пастись
7

“That’s not a bad idea,” said Midge, “I think we ought to do it
for Mr. Baines rather than for Mr. Apple. It will keep his sheep from
getting killed on the highway.”1
I walked across the lawn,i 2 and closed the gate. The sheep were
busily eating and didn’t look up.
About eleven o’clock Midge went over to her house for something
and she called Mr. Baines again. This time Mrs. Baines answered. Mr.
Baines had gone and would not be back until later. She said he would
get the sheep as soon as he got home. That was settled, so we forgot
about the sheep and went back to our balloon.
There’s no use going into all the details with the troubles we had.
It took us a lot of time to tie the basket to the balloon, and to put my
pigeon cage into the basket just right. We spent most of the morning
at it.
Then we had quite a time getting the balloon inflated.3
Finally we managed it. About three-thirty we had the balloon in¬
flated just right. Everything looked promising.
I’d caught the same pigeon the night before and I got him and put
him in the little cage. I took the alarm clock and set the alarm to go
off4 in about fifteen minutes. The main idea was to prove that the
experiment would work.
“What if it goes up too fast?” Midge asked.
“How can it go up too fast?” I said.
“Well, then, too far,” she said. “Supposing it goes up so far that
the pigeon can’t breathe. Doesn’t the air get thinner the higher
you go?”
I had to admit5 that it did but I doubted if our balloon would
get up that high. However, Midge was worrying about it.
“Well, I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” I said. “We’ll put a couple of
bricks:6 in the gondola to add a little weight. We can let it go up
a way on a rope to get an idea how far and how fast it will go up.”
The trouble was that wre didn’t have a long rope. The balloon was
tied with a piece of clothesline 7 and that was only a few feet long.
i highway — шоссе
2 lawn — лужайка
3 to get the balloon inflated — надуть воздушный шар
4 set the alarm to go off — завел будильник
6 to admit — признавать *
6 brick — кирпич
7 clothesline — бельевая веревка
8

“A really good strong rope would do the trick,” I said. “Do you sup¬
pose you could find one?”
“I think so,” Midge said and started to go across the street to her
house. She had gone only a few feet when she turned around and said,
“What about witnesses?” 1
“What do you mean, witnesses?”
“We ought to have someone who sees all this. Even the Wright
brothers1 2 3 had a few people watching.”-
I had to admit that she was right. The only trouble was that if we
invited a lot of people over to see our great experiment and then
it flopped,3 we would feel foolish. I didn’t know what to do.
“I know,” said Midge. “We can take pictures.”
That was a wonderful idea, and we both decided to get our cameras.
It was about twenty minutes to four when I walked into the kitch¬
en. Aunt Mabel had just taken? some’ cookies out of the oven but I
was so excited that I didn’t wait to get one of them. I rushed upstairs,
got my camera, and hurried back. Midge was crossing the street as
I approached and we reached the barn together. Agony, the dog, as
usual was running along with me.
We had tied the balloon out in the middle of the place where it
would be clear of the trees when it started up.
We took pictures of our balloon and then I found several bricks.
Since I had put the pigeon in his cage, all we had to do was put the
bricks in the basket and let it make an experimental flight tied to
Midge’s rope. We walked up to it, neither of us suspecting anything
and so wre were both surprised when we looked inside. There sitting in
the basket was Siegfried, the Apples’ white cat. He had upset the alarm
clock, and the cage, managed to get the door open somehow, and had
killed the pigeon. When he saw us he looked at us waving his tail back
and forth 4 as though telling us to take the pigeon away from him.
I’ve never seen anybody as mad as Midge was. She was so mad she
couldn’t say a word, which means that she was as mad as she can possi¬
bly get. She sputtered and stuttered5 and jumped up and down. I
looked around for a stick. In the first place Siegfried is a big cat and
1 witness — свидетель
2 the Wright brothers — Orville (1871-1948 )and Wilbur (1867-1912) — Amer¬
ican pioneers in aviation who built and flew the first airplane in 1903
3 it flopped — зд. он провалится
4 back and forth — взад и вперед
6 She sputtered and stuttered — Она брызгала слюной и заикалась
9

I didn’t want to fight with him with my bare hands. And secondly I
wanted the stick to give him a couple of good blows, but before I could
find one Midge thought of something else.
“I hope you go up so high you never come back,” she said, and she
took the rope. Just at that moment Agony either smelled the cat, or
saw him, or heard him, or found out somehow what was going on. He
came rushing up from behind me and made a leap.1 He landed in the
basket, just as Midge pulled the rope. Midge said later that she was so
angry she didn’t realize for a minute that Agony had jumped into the
basket. By the time she did it was too late.
With both the cat and the dog, and of course the dead pigeon, in
the basket, the balloon didn’t go up very fast. I did not try to catch
the rope. I guess I didn’t understand what Midge had done for a min¬
ute. By this time the balloon was quite a way up in the air. I rushed
over and made a leap for the end of the rope but just missed it.
“Agony’s in there!” I said to Midge.
Midge nodded. “Yes I know he is,” she said.
We both stood there like fools while the balloon kept getting higher
and higher. We stood watching as it kept moving on towards the tops
of the trees.
* * *
Read Part II of the story The Great Balloon Ascension and answer the
question: What made Mr. Apple scream and shout when he found him¬
self in the back yard?
THE GREAT BALLOON ASCENSION
Part II
I doubt if either Agony or Siegfried knew what was happening for
the first minute or two. The balloon moved upward. There was a scream
from Agony. I suppose Siegfried scratched* 2 him. Then Siegfried’s head
appeared above the edge3 of the basket. I think he was about to jump
out but suddenly he saw he was up in the air and couldn’t, and after
that I guess he was just too terrified 4 to fight Agony any more,
“What are we going to do?” Midge asked in a scared 5 voice.
“I don’t know,” I said.
> to make a leap — прыгнуть
2 to scratch — царапать
3 edge — край
‘ to be terrified — быть испуганным
6 scared — испуганный
10

The balloon was as high as the treetops and began drifting slowly
over toward the Apple’s. Midge and I ran along after it. I don’t
know what we planned to do but I felt I had to follow that balloon
and get Agony down somehow.
The balloon just passed the big oak tree and then went over above
Mr. Apple’s lawn. Midge and I followed as far as the Apples’ house.
There was no wind and the balloon moved very slowly. If Agony hadn’t
been in the basket it would have been a beautiful sight and I would
have been proud of it. As it was I was just scared.
The balloon passed directly over the Apples’ house. As it did
Siegfried raised his head over the edge of the basket and saw his chance.
I’ll have to admit that he is a pretty smart cat. He didn’t hesitate
but jumped. The basket was about eight feet above the roof but of
course that was no jump at all for Siegfried. The roof is certainly not a
very good place for a landing field. Only a cat could have done it with¬
out falling down. Somehow Siegfried was hanging up there. He man¬
aged to get one paw over the peak of the roof, pulled himself up and
settled there. He was too scared to move.
I suppose Agony wondered what had become of the cat and he
raised his head over the edge. It was the first time I’d seen him since
he’d jumped in the basket and I imagine it was the first time he real¬
11

ized that he was up in the air. At the time, all I was worried about
was that he might become panicky and jump.
“Stay in there, Agony,” I shouted. “We’ll get you down.”
I didn’t know how I was going to get him down but I was hoping.
Up until this time Midge and I were fascinated by that sight of that
balloon up in the air, and not really thinking at all. Slowly we began
to come out of it.1
“Well, I might as well take some pictures,” Midge said. “Maybe
I can win a prize with my picture.”
“I’m going to go see if somebody can’t help us,” I said.
For the first time I halfway wished that Agony’s owner would
appear and want his dog. I wished to see anyone who would help me
get Agony back down to earth again. But no one did appear and I
started running for home. At least I could ask Aunt Mabel for advice.
About halfway home I saw Mr. Ainsworth standing in his yard,
looking up in the sky with a puzzled expression on his face.
“Is that contraption1 2 3 something of.yours?” he asked.
I nodded, “It’s a balloon, but my dog got in the basket by mis¬
take and I’ve got to get him down! Who do you think I should call?
The state police? Do you suppose they could help me?”
“Maybe you’d better call out the Army and they could shoot it
down.” Then suddenly he grinned.8 “That’s it,” he said. “That isn’t
up so high. Maybe I can shoot it down for you. Come on.”
We hurried to his house where he got out his gun. Then we got in
his car and drove down the road. Midge was back by the road by this
time and we picked her up too.
The balloon had drifted on and was over the middle of a big lawn
beyond the Apples’. We got out of the car and hurried into the lawn.
Mr. Ainsworth looked around carefully and then up at the balloon.
I didn’t like the idea of his firing his gun in Agony’s direction.
“Are you sure you can hit4 * the balloon without hitting the basket?” I
asked.
Mr. Ainsworth looked at me. “Son, I’ve hunted ducks for forty-
five years. I may be sixty-seven years old but my hand’s still pretty
steady.6 If I can’t hit that balloon without killing your dog, then
I’ll take up knitting.”
1 began to come out of it — начали приходить в себя
2 contraption —хитрое изобретение, штуковина
3 to grin — широко улыбаться
4 to hit — зд. попадать
8 steady — твердый
12

He raised his gun and fired. He waited a second and fired twice
more.
“I think I’ve hit that bag but I’ll give it a couple of more shots
and then we’ll wait and see what happens.”
The balloon was still rising slowly. We followed a short distance
behind. Mr. Ainsworth fired three times more.
“That’s got at least four or five holes in it,” he said. “The trouble
is that there isn’t much pressure1 inside the bag to force the gas out.”
“If the holes are up near the top, the gas will go out,” I said. “Of
course it may take some time.”
“All right, we’ll make sure there’s some near the top,” he said,
and he fired another three shots.
We all stood at the fence for several minutes, watching the balloon
closely.
“I think it’s settling a little,” said Air. Ainsworth. “It’s certainly
not rising any more, You go on ahead and follow7 it. I’ll go get in
the car and drive around and down the road.”
Mr. Ainsworth was right. It was fifteen minutes later before we
saw the balloon was settling, and I had to follow it about half a mile
beyond the road, but it did settle. It came down rather fast and for a
few7 minutes I was scared it would come down too fast and that Agony
would be hurt. The basket landed with a bump 2 but Agony jumped
out safe and sound. He was really glad to see me.
Mr. Ainsworth came up and together we examined the plastic bag.
It was full of holes.
“I’m certainly glad I found you,” I said. “You saved Agony’s life.”
“I enjoyed doing it,” said Mr. Ainsworth. “It isn’t every day that
a man gets to shoot down a balloon carrying a dog.”
Mr. Ainsworth left us at the barn. There wasn’t much left of all
our equipment. The balloon was full of holes, the pigeon w7as dead, the
alarm clock didn’t seem to work any more, and the basket hadn’t
been much good to begin with. Both Midge and I felt pretty dis¬
couraged.
“Some day I’ll kill that cat,” Atidge said.
“Hey, what about the cat?” I asked. “Do you suppose he’s still up
there on the roof?”
We hurried over to the Apples’ house. Siegfried was still hanging
1 pressure — давление
8 with a bump — с глухим ударом
13

high up on the roof. He knew better than to move1 because the roof
was slippery.
“How do you suppose the Apples are going to get him down from
there?”
“I think they should get him down the same way we got Agony
down,” Midge said. “Shoot him down.”
“The Apples still aren’t home,” I said, looking at their empty
garage.
“They’ll have a nice pleasant surprise when they do get back,”
Midge said and started laughing. “I’ll bet that will keep Mr. Apple
busy for a while — figuring out how that cat got up there,”
It was a funny idea and we both sat down and laughed about it
for a while. There just wasn’t any possible way that cat could have got
up there8 except by being dropped from an airplane or balloon.
“Don’t W’orry,” said Midge. “They’ll blame8 us anyhow. Mrs.
Apple will say that you picked up the cat by the tail and threw him
up there.”
“I wonder how soon they’ll be back,” I said. “Sooner or later that
cat will either try to make a move or he’ll get so tired he can’t hang
on any longer. If he falls he’ll be killed.”
“I don’t feel a bit sorry for him,” Midge said.
She did though, and we both got more and more worried.
“They might stay out to dinner,” I said. “They’ve been gone since
early this morning.”
“All right,” Midge said finally. “I suppose we’d better call the
Fire Department.1 2 * 4 I’ll do it but I’m not going to say who I am, be¬
cause whatever happens the Apples are going to be awfully angry.”
The ladder truck5 arrived at about quarter to five, just when
people began returning from work. Everyone thought there was a fire
and stopped. People are naturally curious and I guess they would as
soon see a cat rescued as watch a fire.6 Anyhow, fifteen minutes later
there were about thirty cars parked'7 beside the road and there was a
whole group gathered on Mr. Apple’s lawn, but Midge and I stayed
1 he knew better than to move — он предпочитал не двигаться
2 could have got up there — мог туда забраться
8 to blame — обвинять
4 Fire Department — пожарная команда
6 ladder truck — пожарная машина
• I guess they woul d as soon see a cat rescued as watch a fire — думаю, что люди
наблюдали за спасением кошки с тем же интересом, что и за пожаром
’ to park а саг — поставить машину
И

very carefully aside. We didn’t see how anyone could connect us with
that cat on the roof, and we wanted to keep it that way.
The firemen got the ladder up and a man was halfway up to the
edge of the roof when the Apples came home. Mr. Apple was too
scared to be angry first. I suppose he thought his house was on fire.
They got out of the car and one of the firemen told Mrs, Apple the cause
of ail the excitement. She looked up, and when she saw Siegfried on the
peak of the roof she very nearly fainted.1 Mr. Apple and a fireman
helped her over to a garden bench where she sat down.
“How do you suppose that cat got up there?” one of the firemen
asked.
Mr. Apple just shook his head. We could hear everyone talking
from where we stood and they all seemed to be puzzled.1 2
After the fireman reached the edge of the roof he still had to put up
another short ladder to get to Siegfried. He finally did it, and Sieg¬
fried was so glad to get down that he didn’t scratch the fireman.
Everything had gone very well up to this point. The Apples were
acting almost human. Mrs. Apple was full of thanks to the fireman and
Mr. Apple hadn’t screamed at anybody for being on his lawn. A tali,
sandy-haired man who had appeared with the Apples stood over watch¬
ing everything and saying nothing. Just when all the excitement was
over there were a couple of loud baas from the big back yard. Midge
and I looked at each other in surprise. Mr. Baines still hadn’t come
for his sheep.
Mr. Apple was surprised too, and then he was suspicious.3- He hur¬
ried over to the back yard. If you saw him you would have thought he
was being murdered.4 5 He jumped up and down and shouted something
that I couldn’t understand. I guess everybody else thought the same
thing and they all hurried over to find out what was the matter. Of
course none of them understood why he was so mad. Midge and
I hurried back to see what he would do. We arrived just in time to see
him open the gate and rush inside this wire fence. He screamed and
shouted and waved his arms.6 The sheep rushed through the gate and
went running out into the front yard.
1 to faint — падать в обморок
8 to be puzzled — быть озадаченным
3 to be suspicious — подозревать
4 If you saw him you would have thought he was being murdered.— Если бы
вы его увидели, вы бы подумали, что его убивают,
5 waved his arms — размахивал руками
15

There wasn’t much left of the grass inside the fence. After all,
eight sheep had been there all day and they had had nothing to do but
eat. It was cropped down almost to the roots. 1 They had made a very
thorough 1 2 and very clean job of it. It wouldn’t need mowdng 3 for a
long time. Mr. Apple pointed at the ground, dancing up and down, and
I wasn’t certain whether he was going to cry or blow up. The sandy-
haired man walked over, went through the gate, and stood talking with
Apple for several minutes. Mr, Apple calmed down a little bit but he
was still quite excited. The sheep went baaing off down the road but,
as I said to Midge, I thought we had done our duty by them.
Some of the. people stood around a few minutes longer, wondering
what in the world had happened to Mr. Apple. However, there wasn’t
anything else to see. The fire truck drove away and soon everyone had
gone home. It was dinner time so Midge and I went home too.
Aunt Mabel was home when I got there but she had been at the
Apples’ watching the firemen getting the cat down. Uncle Al didn’t
appear for another ten minutes,
“Well, that was quite a lot of excitement,” Aunt Mabel said as we
sat down to dinner, “How on earth do you suppose that cat got up
there?”
“No one seems to know,” Uncle Al said, looking at me. “However I
was'talking to Mr. Ainsworth just before I came in.”
I could tell from Uncle Al’s expression that he suspected 4 * something.
After all it wasn’t my fault that Siegfried had jumped in the basket
and there was no reason why I shouldn’t tell them, so I did.
“What on earth was Mr. Apple screaming about there at the last?”
Aunt Mabel asked.
“Oh, that,” Uncle Al said. “That tall fellow in the brown suit was
Jim Weber. He’s with a seed company of Philadelphia. I thought I
recognized him and I went over and talked to him. That’s why I
was a little late getting back. It seems that Mr. Apple has developed
some new kind of grass. Or at least he'thinks he has. It’s curly grass
and doesn’t need mowing very often. He’s got some idea that it’s ex¬
tremely valuable 6 and it may be, although Weber says that such dis¬
1 It was cropped down almost to the roots.— Она была съедена под корень,
? thorough — тщательный
? И wouldn’t need mowing — Ее не нужно будет косить
4 to suspect — подозревать
6 there was no reason why 1 shouldn’t tell them —■ у меня не было причины
скрывать
® valuable — ценный
16

coveries or developments never make a great deal of money. Anyhow,
Apple has been working on four or five kinds of grass and this is the
final answer. He thinks it will make him famous. He planted it in
the back yard and put up a wire fence around it. According to Weber
he’s been so secretive and mysterious about it that it’s ridiculous.1
I guess he was afraid someone would steal his secret. Anyhow, after
a lot of negotiations1 2 he arranged fora seed company to sendarepre-
sentative3 up to see this great discovery'. Jim Weber was the man they
sent. The trouble is that when he got out to look at it they found
that some sheep had been locked up inside the fence and had eaten
practically all the grass.”
Uncle Al paused and looked at me. “How did those sheep get in
there?" he asked. “They got through a hole in the fence,” I explained.
“Midge and I chased them and they went through into Mr. Apple’s
place. I guess that grass must be good. The sheep went right in there
and started eating it. I went over and closed the gate and Midge called
Mr, Baines. We forgot all about them until we heard Mr. Apple scream.
Besides we didn’t know that was special grass.”
“Well, Mr. Apple is very disappointed.” said Uncle Al, “and I
can’t say that I blame him, but after all if he hadn’t been so mysteri¬
ous you’d have known that he was anxious to protect that grass and
would have chased the sheep4 out instead of locking them in. Anyhow,
Jim Weber told him this would be a good test of the grass. If it comes
back it will be proof that it’s tough.”5 6
Exchanging ideas:
1.	Have you ever had any brilliant ideas? Did you get them from
books? Did you ever try to make an experiment?
2.	Have you ever had any adventures like Henry Reed?
3.	Do you know anyone like Henry or Midge? If you do not know any¬
one like them would you like to? Give your reasons.
1 ridiculous — смешной
2 negotiations — переговоры
8 representative — представитель
4 if he hadn’t been so mysterious you’d have known that... and would have
chased the sheep — если бы он не делал из этого тайны, ты бы знал, что...
и выгнал бы овец
6 it will be proof that it’s tough [tʌ^-ят-'"К1Л'’’«тдекязатедьством ее стойкости
17

UNIT 2
Read the story Return to Air and answer the questions: Did Sausage
manage to dive and get the brick? What did Sausage do with the thing
he had brought from the bottom of the pond?
RETURN TO AIR
(after Philippa Pearce)
The Ponds are very big, so that at one end people bathe and at
the other end they fish. Old with bald heads sit on their stools and
fish with rods and lines,1 and little kids wade into the water1 2 to fish
with nets.3 But the water’s much deeper at our end of the Ponds, and
that’s where we bathe. You’re not allowed to bathe there unless you
can swim; but I’ve always been able to swim. They used to say that
was because fat swims well —- well, I don’t mind. They call me Sau¬
sage.4
Only, I don’t dive5-—not from any diving-board, thank you.
I have to take my glasses off to go into the water, and I can’t see with¬
out them, and I’m just not going to dive, even from the lowest diving¬
board, and that’s that, and they stopped talking about it long ago.
Then, this summer, they told me to learn duck-diving. You’re
swimming on the surface6 of the water and suddenly you up-end7 your¬
self just like a duck and dive down deep into the water, and swim
1 rods and lines — удочки
2 to wade into the water — войти в воду
3 net — сеть
4 sausage — сосиска
5 to dive — нырять
6 surface — поверхность
7 to up-end — принять вертикальное положение
18

under-water, and then come up again. I don’t think ducks do it. It’s
different for them.
So I was learning to duck-dive — to swim down to the bottom1
of the Ponds, and pick up a brick they’d throw in, and bring it up again.
You practise that in case you have to rescue1 2 anyone from drowning —
say, they’d sunk for the third time and gone to the bottom. Of course,
they’d be bigger and heavier than a brick, but I suppose you have to
begin with bricks and work up gradually3 to people.
The swimming-instructor said, “Sausage, I’m going to throw the
brick in -—” It was a brick with a bit of old white flannel ['flænl]
1 bottom — дно
2 to rescue — спасать
3 gradually — постепенно
lθ

round it, to make it show up ɪ under-water. “—Sausage, I’m going to
throw it in, and you go after it — go after it, Sausage, and get it
before it reaches the bottom and settles in the mud,1 2 3 or you’ll never
get it.”
He’d made everyone come out of the water to give me a chance,
and they were standing watching. I could see on the bank, and I could
hear them talking and laughing; but there wasn’t a sound in the water
when I was wading the pond. And then I saw the brick go over my
head as the instructor threw it, and there was a splash ? as it went into
the water in front of me; and I thought: I can’t do it — my legs
won’t up-end this time, they won’t up-end — they can't up-end —
it’s different for ducks. . . But while I was thinking all that, I’d taken
a deep breath,4 and then my head really went down and my legs went
up into the air — I could feel them there, just air around them, and
then there was water round them, because I was going down into the
water. Right down into the water; straight down. . .
At first my eyes were shut, though I didn’t know I’d shut them.
When I did realize, I opened the eyes to see. Because, though I can’t
see much without my glasses, as I’ve said, I don’t believe anyone
could see much under-water in those Ponds; so I could see as much as
anyone.
The water was like a thick greeny-brown lemonade l,lemə'neɪdl
with little things moving very slowly about in it — or perhaps they
were just movements of the water, not things at all; I couldn’t tell.
The brick had a few seconds’ start of me, 5 of course, but I could
still see something white that must be the flannel round it.
The funny thing about swimming under-water is its being so still
and shady6 7 down there, after all the air and sunlight and splashing
and shouting just up above. I was shut right in by the quiet, greeny-
brown water, just me alone with the brick ahead of me, both of us
going towards the bottom.
The Ponds are deep, but I knew they weren’t too deep; and, of
course, I knew I’d enough air in my lungs’ from the breath I’d taken.
I knew all that.
1 to make it show up — зд. чтобы его было видно
2 mud — грязь
3 splash — всплеск
4 to take a deep breath [breθ] — глубоко вздохнуть
had a few seconds’ start of me — опередил меня на несколько секунд
6 shady — тенистый
7 lung — легкое
20

Down we went, and the lemonade-look quite went from the water,
and it became just a dark blackish-brown, and you’d wonder you
could see anything at all. The white flannel seemed to have come off the
brick1 by the time it reached the bottom and I’d caught up with1 2 it.
The brick looked different down there, and it had already settled right
into the mud. I dug into the mud with my fingers and grabbed the
thing, and then I didn’t think of anything except3 getting up again
with it into the air.
Touching the bottom like that had stirred up the mud, so that I
began going up through a thick cloud of it. I let myself go up —
they say fat swims well, you know—but I was shooting myself
upwards, too. I was in a hurry.
The funny thing was, I only began to be afraid when I was going
back. I suddenly thought: perhaps I’ve swum under-water much too
far — perhaps I’ll come up at the far end of the Ponds among all the
fishermen and break their lines and perhaps get a fish-hook caught in
the flesh of my cheek.4 * And all the time I was going up quite quickly,
and the water was changing from brown-black to green-browm and then
to bright lemonade. I could almost see the sun shining through the wa¬
ter, I was so near the surface. It wasn’t until then that I felt really
frightened: I thought I was moving much too slowly and I’d never
reach the air again in time.
Never the air again, . .
Then suddenly I was at the surface —■ I’d come back from the water
into the air. For a while I couldn’t think of anything, and I couldn’t
do anything except let out the old breath I’d been holding and take a
couple of fresh, quick ones, and get out of the water.
Pond water was in my nose and in my mouth, which I hate. But
there was air all round and above, for me to breathe,6 to live.
And then I noticed they were shouting from the bank. They were
cheering and shouting, “Sausage! Sausage!” and the instructor was cry¬
ing with his hands round his mouth: “What on earth have you got there,
Sausage?”
1 The white flannel seemed to have come off thebrick — Похоже, белая фланель
слетела с кирпича
2 to catch up with — поравняться
5 except — кроме
4 perhaps get a fish-hook caught in the flesh of my cheek — возможно, крючок
вцепится мне в щеку
Б to breathe — дышать
21

So then I turned myself round — I’d come up almost near the fish¬
ermen at the other end of the Ponds, but only a few feet from1 where
I’d gone down; so that was all right. I turned round and swam to the
bank and they helped me out and gave me my glasses to have a good
look at wrhat I’d brought up from the bottom.
Because it wasn’t a brick. It was just about the size and shape
of one, but it was a tin2 — an old, old tin box with no paint left on
it and all brown-black slime from the bottom of the Ponds. It was as
heavy as a brick because it was full of mud. Don’t get excited, as we
did: there was nothing there but mud. We strained all the mud through
our fingers,3 but there wasn’t anything else there — not even a bit of
old sandwich or the remains of bait.4 I thought there might have been,
because the tin could have belonged5 to one of the old chaps that have
always fished at the other end of the Ponds. They often bring their
dinners with them in bags or tins, and they have tins for bait, too. It
could have been dropped® into the water at their end of the Ponds and
got moved to our end with the movement of the water. Otherwise I
don’t know how that tin box can have got there.7 Anyway, it must
have been there for years,8 by the look of it. When you think, it might
have stayed9 there for years and years longer; perhaps stayed sunk
under-water for ever.
I’ve cleaned the tin up and I keep it on the mantel-piece 10 at home
with my coin collection in it. I had to duck-dive later for another
brick, and I got it all right, without being frightened at all; but it
didn’t seem to matter as much as coming up with the tin. I shall keep
the tin as long as I live, and I might easily live to be a hundred.
Exchanging ideas:
1. Is sport an important thing in our life?
2. What does sport teach us? How does it help to form our characters?
1	a few feet from — в нескольких футах от
2	tin ■— зд. жестяная коробка
3	strained all the mud through our fingers — перетерли пальцами всю грязь
(в надежде найти что-либо)
4	remains of bait — остатки наживки
5	there might have been, because the tin could have belonged...— там это могло
быть, так как коробка могла принадлежать...
6	It could have been dropped— Ее, возможно, уронили
7	how that tin box can have got there — как могла туда попасть коробка
8	it must have been there for years — должно быть, она лежала там не один
год
° it might have stayed — возможно, она находилась
10 mantel-piece — камин
22

* *
Read the story Street Fair and answer the question: What interesting
things did Katie John see at the Street Fair?
STREET FAIR
?	(from Honestly, Katie John! by Mary Calhoun)
Every summer the last week before school started, the Street Fair
came to town. At fair time people came from downriver, from upriver,
from across the Mississippi, and from back country. At Street Fair time
, all roads led to the trading centre. Carnival rides1 and tents blossomed
in the street between the stores. At the busiest corner a large platform
' was erected? for bands to play on — sometimes the town’s brass band,1 * 3
sometimes a western music guitar lgɪ'tɑ] band brought in for square
dancing.4 At the other corners were free “acts”: this year the Great
Rudolpho, walking the high wire each night at 7 and 11 p. m.; Albert
‘ and Alberta, trapeze ltrə'pi:z] artists; and the Rozzi family and its
educated dogs.
What a nice, lazy summer it had been! Katie stretched5 happily,
thinking back: the week of day camp at the park, where she had learned
to shoot an arrow; the day of the excursion-boat trip on the river,
when she and Edwin Jones had explored the engine room of the old
, boat until they had been found; swimming with her parents on the riv¬
er; the week she and Sue had spent at Sue’s uncle’s farm.
There hadn’t been any big problems this summer. Enough money to
live on now that Dad’s mystery writing6 was going well. And best,
all the people she loved around her: Mother; Dad with his jokes; sweet,
plump Sue (always clucking 7 like an anxious mother hen whenever
Katie set out to do something interesting); Miss Howell, last year’s
teacher, moving back to her apartment this weekend now that school
was about to start — dear Miss Howell,
“Yes,” Katie John thought, “life is pretty nice. No more worries.
After all, what big problems could come up now?”
1 carnival ['kɑ:nɪvəl] ride — зд, аттракцион
8 to erect — ставить, воздвигать
3 brass band — духовой оркестр
4 square dance — кадриль или любой групповой танец
;	5 to stretch —■ зд. потянуться
’ mystery writing — сочинение детективных романов
f to cluck — кудахтать
23

She stretched again and yawned. It felt good to be at home with
the world. ... If only Sue would hurry up. She could hardly wait to
start for the fair.
Katie John looked through the window to see if Sue was coming up
the sidewalk.1 Instead she saw a group of people in front. Why, they
were having a picnic right out in the street. Car parked, doors opened,
a fat lady in the front seat, a picnic basket and the food spread out
on the stone,2 grownups and children sitting on the curb3 eating.
A!ust be a farm family come to town for the fair.
The town certainly was filling up, full of people and excitement.
Katie could hear the music from Main Street, and the sound of the
rides. Today was Tuesday, second day of the fair, Children’s Day, when
rides were only a dime,4 best day for families and kids. Main Street
must be packed. She couldn’t wait. . . .
“I’m going, Mother!” Katie called back to the kitchen, then stopped
at the front door. She watched with mounting anger as the picnicking
family tossed away paper and remains of the food5 on the grass.
The people slammed the car doors,8 and started down the sidewalk
toward the fair.
“Hey!” Katie called after them. “Aren’t you going to clean things
up?”
Nobody even turned around except the little boy, who stuck out
his tongue at7 Katie John.
“Hey!” Katie ran out to the front gate.
The family hurried around the corner by Sue’s house.
“Katie!” Sue had come out and was waving.
Katie John started to run. But at that moment a small brown figure
with a white spot on the end of its tail rushed out from a hidden place
in the bushes. Her dog Spot ran after its mistress.
“No, Spot. You can’t go. You’d get squashed in the crowds.8
She went toward the yard, but the dog only lowered his head, all
big brown eyes.
1	sidewalk — амер, тротуар
2	spread out on the stone — разложенная на камне
3	curb — край тротуара
dime — амер, монета в десять центов
6	tossed away paper and remains of the food — выбросили бумагу и остатки
пищи
8	to slam the door — хлопнуть дверью
’ stuck out his tongue at — показал язык
8	You’d get squashed in the crowds.— Тебя раздавят в толпе,
24

“Oh, Spot, I’m sorry, but you can’t, you just can’t.”
She picked up her dog and put him in the house. Then she ran down
the block to join Sue.
“Do I look all right?” Sue fluffed out her skirt.1
Katie John looked at her friend. “Sure,” she said. “You always
look nice.”
Katie had combed her fly-away bangs1 2 3 and put on a skirt in honour
of the fair, but that had been the extent of her preparations, ɔ-
Now the girls came to Main Street. They had ears, noses, and eyes
only for the Street Fair, spread before them with alɪ its delights:
whirling rides,4 flashing lights, calliope music,5 6 smells (hot popcorn, *
hot dogs, hamburgers7 —■ new smells at every step), guns cracking at
the shooting gallery, the House of Mirrors, boys calling (“See the Mid¬
get8 Woman! Tiniest lady in the world! Come in, come in!”), and people.
People hurrying, laughing, standing, looking, pushing through the
crowd, shouting to friends, waving balloons — holiday people!
“Ahh!” Katie held her breath in delight, and rushed into the crowds.
“Sue! Come on!”
“Wait.” Sue followed more slowly. “Watch out!”
She picked up Katie, who had tripped over a cable9 from the
merry-go-round, and brushed her off.
“Never mind,” Katie said. “Come on!”
And then the girls were part of the Street Fair. They already knew
just what they wanted to do. Yesterday they had walked up and
down Main Street looking to see what the fair offered, but they had
saved their doing for today. Both had agreed that the Crazy House
would be the most fun, so they saved that for a while. The House of
Mirrors must surely be visited too. Katie wanted to try all the tent
shows, but she knew her money wouldn’t hold out. 10 Besides, Sue
didn’t think they should go into some of them, such as the Hula Girl
1 Sue fluffed out her skirt.— зд, Сью показала, какая у нее широкая юбка.
2 fly-away bangs — растрепанные короткие волосы, лохмы
3 had been the extent of her preparations — зд. на большее ее не хватило
4 whirling ride — карусель
5 calliope [kə'laɪəpɪ] music — звуки калиопы (клавишный музыкальный ин¬
струмент)
6 popcorn — воздушная кукуруза
7 hamburger — булочка с рубленым бифштексом	ɪ
8 midget — лилипут
9 tripped over a cable — споткнулась о канат
10her money wouldn’t hold out — у нее не хватит денег
25

tent. At last they had picked the Midget Woman tent to be the one
show they would visit. “Only I’m not going to look at the snakes,”
Sue had said, closing her eyes.
“Me either.” Katie John had agreed with one of Sue’s fears for
once. However, Katie was determined to go on the Ferris wheel,1
even though Sue was afraid of that as well.
First on the programme was the merry-go-round, for Sue loved it,
even though Katie thought it was pretty tame.2 They bought their
tickets and waited for the horses to come to a stop. Sue picked a white
horse,
“I’m going to ride sidesaddle3 like an olden-time lady,” she said,
with a rare flight of imagination. *
Katie sat sidesaddle on a green horse, but the ticket taker came
around and told them they had to ride the right way or they might fall
off. The calliope music began, and the horses started to circle, moving
up and down. On the second time around, Katie John saw a large brass
ring hanging from the canopy.® She had heard of brass rings, but she
had never been on a merry-go-round that had one.
“Do I get a free ride if I get it?” she called to the ticket taker.
He nodded, bored.
Next time around Katie tried to grab 6 the ring, but her arm was a
good two feet too short.
“That isn’t fair!” she said to Sue behind her. “No kid could reach
that far.”
The merry-go-round people just put it there to tease children,
she decided. Well, she’d show them. Next time she passed the ring, she
watched to see exactly where it was. Then she pulled her feet up onto
the saddle of her horse and got up, holding to the pole 7 in front of
her.
“Katie, don’t! Be careful!” Sue cried.
“Nothing’s going to happen.”
Katie John stood up, holding the pole with her left hand, and
grabbed the ring with her right. But the ring didn’t come loose.8 As
I Ferris wheel — чертово колесо
2 tame — зд. неинтересный
3 to ride sidesaddle — ехать на лошади боком
* a rare flight of imagination — редкий полет фантазии
6 brass ring hanging from the canopy — медное кольцо на тенте
6 to grab — схватить
7 pole — столб
8 to come loose — зд. отрываться
2д

Katie seized the ring, her horse moved away from her. She hung from
the ring for a moment. Then it broke loose, and she dropped to the
deck of the merry-go-round.
The ticket taker came hurrying around. “What happened?”
“I got the brass ring.” Katie John held it up.
“Wha—” He stared up at the place where the ring had broken off,
then muttered angrily. The horses were slowing to a stop. The man
grabbed the ring from her hand and jerked his head1 at a horse. “Okay!
Get on.”
“But I don’t want another ride,” Katie added. “Let my friend have
it. See —” she said to Sue, who was looking frightened, “nothing hap¬
pened.”
“Huh!” said Sue, closing her mouth.
After Sue had taken her second ride, the girls walked on. Next
was the Ferris wheel. Sue stayed on the ground and waved to Katie,
who called from the air, “I can see the river! There’s Betsy Ann and
some other kids way up the street.”
1 jerked his head — кивнул головой
27

After that they bought popcorn and went to the Crazy House. Just
before it, Katie John paused. A small tent had been set up next to it
since the girls had looked yesterday.
GYPSY FORTUNETELEING * read the sign. Stars, zodiac ['zou-
dɪæk] symbols, and the palm of a hand were painted on the tent walls.
In front on a camp chair sat a heavy woman with golden rings in her
ears. She wore a bright scarf bound across her forehead and knotted
in the back.8 Under it her black hair hung down to her shoulders.
She was chewing guru3 and shuffling a deck of cards,4
“A Gypsy!" Katie whispered to Sue. “I’ve never had my fortune
told. Have you?”
Sue shook her head.
“Let’s!”
The girls approached the fortuneteller. Silently she got up and
fed the way into the tent. It was almost dark inside. The woman sat
down behind a small table and motioned the girls into two chairs.
“Cross my hand with silver,”6 she said rapidly.
“How much?” Katie asked.
“A quarter,6 kid. Make a wish.”
Katie John thought and nodded. The fortuneteller began slapping
picture cards down on the table, her lips moving.
“Twenty one! You aren’t gonna get7 your wish, kid. Now for
what’s gonna happen to you.”
She put a picture card of a lady in the middle and said that was
Katie John. Then she laid out cards in a square around the lady —
e star, a tree. “Success, good health,” she whispered.
Katie John looked at the Gypsy’s thick fingers, wearing many
flashing rings, then up at her brown face. As the woman chewed her
gum, her earrings swung with the rhythm ['rɪðəm] of her jaws.8 Could
this woman really see into her future? Could she tell what was going to
happen to her? How could she know? How could the cards know?
“This is the strangest fortune lever read,” the Gypsy said. “You’re
1	Gypsy fortunetelling — гадание цыганки
s bound across her forehead and knotted in the back — обернутый вокруг лба
и связанный в узел позади
3	to chew gum — жевать резинку
4	to shuffle a deck of cards — тасовать колоду карт
S Cross my hand with silver — Позолоти ручку
• a quarter — четверть доллара
’ You aren't gonna get = You aren’t going to get
8 jaws — челюсти
28

supposed to be the queen of hearts,1 but you aren’t. I see bad news —
something awful is going to happen. No, I guess it means you are
gonna to find buried treasure. Sure, that’s it. And that’s all.”
She slapped her hand1 2 on the cards.
Katie John stared at the cards, forgetting the woman and Sue.
Buried treasure!
“Oh!” she breathed.
“Want your fortune told?” the Gypsy was asking Sue, but Sue shook
her head.
Katie John saw a glass bail on another little table at the side. The
woman noticed her glance.
“Fifty cents, and I will look into the crystal ball, see lots more,
explain your fortune in the cards.”
Katie had only fifty cents left, and she hadn’t been to the Crazy
House yet. But the crystal ball! What strange pictures might the
Gypsy see in it? How could she see pictures in it?
“How does it work?”
Katie picked up the ball to look at it. It was heavy, andtheglass
was cloudy. She couldn’t see anything in it.
“Hands off the ball, kid! Fingerprints.”3
The fortuneteller took the ball and rubbed it on her skirt.
“I’d better not,” Katie said. “I don’t have enough money.”
“So. Your loss.” The woman said.
The girls stepped into the sunshine and the noise of the fair.
“Do you suppose she really was a Gypsy?” Sue wondered. “Good¬
ness,4 * Katie John, I didn’t want my fortune told after I saw yours.”
Katie’s eyes weren’t seeing the street.
“Buried treasure,” she murmured. “But where should I dig? Oh,
probably she makes it all up.6 Come on, let’s go to the Crazy House.”
After the Crazy House, which was just as much fun as the girls
expected, they decided to try another ride. Wandering up the street,
they came to the platform where Josh Carney and his western band
were playing fast guitar music for the square dancers. The girls stopped
to watch.
1 hearts — червы (карточная масть)
2 slapped her hand — ударила рукой
3 fingerprint — отпечаток пальца
4 Goodness — восклицание, выражающее удивление или возмущение
6 probably she makes it all up — может быть, она сочиняет все это
29

Then they moved on.
“Oh, that’s what I want to try,” Katie said, pointing to the cat¬
erpillar ride.1
The ride consisted simply of seats set in a circle on a deck. When
the circle got to spinning rapidly, a caterpillar cover rose up over
the seats. That was the fun of the ride — though Katie John thought
it looked pretty strange to see a caterpillar racing around in a circle
as if it. had its tail in its mouth, Whoever heard of a racing caterpil¬
lar anyway?
“I wonder what it feels like to be spinning around in the dark un¬
der the cover?” Katie John said. “Would I get dizzy? Or would it be a
wonderful feeling, like whirling around in a dream?”
“Weil, I’m not going to find out,” Sue declared. “I might get sick,
and I couldn’t get out with the cover pinning me in, I don’t like to
be shut up in things.”
Katie John bought her ticket.
Exchanging ideas:
1,	What are your feelings regarding Katie and Sue? Which of the girls
do you like better?
2.	Do you have a bosom friend? Do you make a good friend?
3.	Have you ever been to a recreation park? What did you enjoy there?
4.	What side-shows do you like best?
5.	Hove do you usually spend your spare time?
*• caterpillar ['kætəpɪlə] ride — «гусеница» (очень популярный в США аттрак¬
цион. На платформе по кругу расположены сиденья. Платформа начинает
волнообразное круговое движение. Затем над сиденьями поднимается
полотняный полог. Участники аттракциона оказываются в темноте, а
снаружи создается впечатление, что по кругу движется огромная гусеница)
30

UNIT 3
Read the story The Spoiled Child and answer the question: What kin4 ci
work did Rumshus and Sammy do?
THE SPOILED CHILD
(after Hilda Boden)
Rumshus shook his head at the girl sitting in the saddle of the
donkey.
“Sure,” he said, “you’ve had three rides, missy, and I’ve had to
run beside you all the way there and back each time. And now there’s
other children waiting for rides. I think we ought to give them their
turn.”
He looked at the other children hopefully. There were two boys
and a girl, and they all looked the sort of people who could manage
donkeys for themselves.
The girl on the donkey tossed her own head. She had a mopɪ of
light curls, a plump and pretty face with very red cheeks.
“I’m going to stay on this donkey,” she said. “I like it.”
Rumshus shook his head again.
“We have to be fair to the others,” he repeated.
The girl stared at him.
“I like donkey riding and I’m going to go on riding this donkey.
And if the other children have to wait, they can wait. I was here
first.”
Rumshus did not know what to do. In all his years of helping with
the Trapper donkeys on Brightsea sands he had never met a rider who
1 mop — копна
31

just refused to get down from a donkey. Of course, a lot of children
had been lifted out of their saddles by parents who were not prepared
to pay for any more rides, but that was different. This girl seemed to
have plenty of money to pay with, and she was determined on more
riding. The trouble was that when Rumshus let go of the leading-
rein1 and left her donkey run free, she started yelling that she was
going to fall off and be hurt; and if he didn’t keep the donkey trotting2
smartly, so that he was out of breath3 running beside it, the girl start¬
ed shouting that she wasn’t having a proper ride for her shilling.
Rumshus wished heartily that Sammy Trapper had been waiting with
the donkeys when the girl first came up. Sammy was older, and knew
how to manage people, but just at that time he had been away along
the beach, keeping an eye on4 a party5 of boys.
The girl looked at him,
“What are we waiting for? Here’s your next shilling, and I want
to go. I want to go a long way this time; right along to that little
tower on the sands.”
“We never go there,” Rumshus told her. “It’s too far for a shilling
ride.”
“I’ll pay two shillings then,” said the girl.
Rumshus looked at the distant tower, and his legs began to ache
at the thought of running so far.
He looked hopefully along the beach, thinking that Sammy must
be back soon, and that then he could manage this horrible girl.
“Let’s go,” said the horrible girl. “You must hold that little side
rein all the way.”
Rumshus began to explain that usually riders managed on their
own,6 with one donkey boy to several donkeys, keeping an eye on
them. He felt quite sure the girl was not listening to this, but he did
not mind, because he also saw that Sammy was nearly back again.
He stopped talking, and waited for him.
Sammy saw his own riders on to the ground ’ and his donkeys settled
quietly, and then turned to Rumshus and his problem.
1	to let go of the leading-rein — отпустить поводок
2	to trot — идти рысью
3	to be out of breath — задохнуться
‘ to keep an eye on — следить за
5	party — зд. группа
6	on their own — сами
7	saw his own riders on to the ground — проследил, как сошли дети, которые
катались на его осликах
32

“What’s this?” he asked. He sounded very grown-up.
Before Rumshus could speak, the girl did it for him.
“This boy here won’t take me on another ride along to that little
tower. I’ve told him to,1 and he won’t do it. I do wish you’d make
him."1 2
She smiled at Sammy, looking very pretty and innocent, just as
Rumshus had thought her when she first came up to the donkey stand.
“She’s had three rides,” said Rumshus, “and she wants me to run
beside her all the way. And I can’t, I’m tired. My legs are aching
like you can’t think. And there are these other children waiting for
their turn.”
“Well, you put them on some of the other donkeys,” said Sammy
cheerfully, “and I’ll see to3 this young lady.”
“Good-oh!” said Rumshus. He did not wait. He took the three chil¬
1 I’ve told him to = I’ve told him to take me on another ride
8 1 do wish you’d make him.— Я хочу, чтобы вы его заставили.
3 to see to somebody or something — заботиться о ком-либо, чем-либо
2 № 1932
33

dren across to the donkeys Sammy had brought in and saw them mount¬
ed.1 As he had thought, they were sensible2 children, and no trouble
at all.
Sammy was having trouble, though. As soon as Rumshus had dis¬
appeared, the girl demanded3 to know why they were waiting.
Sammy laughed. “Well, if we boys took single riders4 every time
they came along, we’d be too tired to move at the end of the day.
We’ll just wait a bit, and somebody else is sure to come along for a
ride, and then I’ll take you together.”
The girl’s pretty face did not look quite so pretty. She frowned.
“That black boy took me by myself.”5
“Well, I shan’t,” said Sammy firmly. “We’ll just wait a few min¬
utes, as I said.”
To his surprise and horror, she opened her mouth, and began to
cry. It was not just quiet, unhappy crying, but a noisy sobbing and
that made people turn to look at her.
“Be quiet!” ordered Sammy, firmly. “You won’t be having another
ride on any of my donkeys. See how people are looking at us! They
must be thinking you’ve been hurt, and that won’t do my business any
good.”
She did not argue, but let out another cry.
Mrs. Wink, who was the Punch and Judy man,6 heard the cry, and
popped her head out between the curtains at the back of her booth.
“What is the matter, Sammy Trapper?” she called, in her deep
voice. The girl was so surprised at the voice that she stopped crying.
“The girl wants one of us to run with her every time she goes out,
and she doesn’t want to wait for somebody else to make up a party.
Rumshus has taken her out three times, and now I think it’s time
she got off that donkey and went home.”
Mrs. Wink walked slowly across the fine dry sand.
“She doesn’t look like a naughty little girl,” she observed.
The girl screamed again. “I’m not a naughty girl. I’m not little,
either. And when my grandma comes back, I’ll tell her how you’ve
1 saw them mounted — проследил за тем, как они сели на осликов
0 sensible —. благоразумный
3 to demand — требовать
4 if we... took single riders — если бы мы,., катали детей по одному
took me by myself — катал меня одну
0 Mrs. Wink... was the Punch and Judy man — Миссис Уинк,,. давала пред¬
ставления кукольного театра (Punch and Judy — марионетки типа Пет¬
рушки)
34

behaved to me, and I expect she’ll call the police, or something.
She's very rich, and she does what I tell her.”
"Sounds a foolish woman,” commented Mrs. Wink. She eyed the
giri sternly. “Now' then. Let Sammy help you off that donkey, You’ve
been on it long enough.”
The girl hesitated. “You’re a horrid old woman,” she told
Mrs. Wink.
“I may be old, but I try not to be horrid,” said Mrs. Wink. “Now,
I think you are horrid, and I can see that you are young, and I think
a young horror is worse than an old one, any day.”
The girl’s face dropped into its crying lines again.
“I’m not a young horror,” she began to sob.1 “Wait till I tell my
grandma what you said. Nobody ever said anything like that to me
before.”
Sammy asked Mrs. Wink, “Do help me to get her away,” he whisp¬
ered. “People are taking notice2 and I’m sure I’m losing trade.”3
Mrs. Wink was sorry for Sammy. He had been the man of his family
since his grandfather died, and she knew how hard he worked and how
much he tried to keep the donkey business going.4 Besides,
Mrs. Trapper was her great friend, so she felt rather responsible for the
boys and donkeys on the beach.
She went close up to the donkey and just lifted the girl from the
saddle. The child was so surprised that she did not have time to cling5
on. She did, however, kick out at6 Mrs. Wink as she set her on the
sands.
Mrs. Wink bent down and rubbed her leg.
“Don’t do anything like that again,” she said warningly.
Sammy did not stay to hear what happened after that. He led the
donkey away and in no time had three more children ready for rides,
and was glad to take them out on the sands.
“I shall kick you if I like,” said the girl.
“If you do, I shall give you a good smacking,” 7 said Mrs. Wink
firmly. “I’ve half a mind to do that now. You’re a bad girl, and it’s
what you deserve.”
1 to sob — всхлипывать
2 to take notice — обращать внимание
3 to lose trade — терять работу
4 to keep... business going — продолжать... дело
6 to ding — цепляться, держаться
6 to kick out at somebody — ударить кого-либо
7 a good smacking —- хорошая трепка
2*
35

Mrs. Wink sounded so decided that the girl started to behave prop¬
erly. When the old lady turned back to her Punch and Judy booth,
the girl followed her.
“Do you live in that funny little place?” she asked.
“I earn my living in it,” said Mrs. Wink. “I’m a Punch and Judy
man.”
“You don’t look like a man,” objected the girl.
“Maybe not,” agreed Mrs. Wink, “but it’s not me that you see when
I give a performance. It’s Mr. Punch and Mrs. Punch and all the rest
of my puppets.”
“Do one for me now,” ordered the girl at once.
Mrs. Wink stared.
“Give a show just for,one person? I couldn’t do that. Why, I make
my living from the coppers I get in the net1 I pass round after a show.
One person in my audience wouldn’t be much good to me, wouldn’t
it?”
“But I want to see a Punch and Judy show,” objected the girl,
“I’ve never seen one yet, and I want to see one now. And I’ll give you
a shilling to do one for me. A shilling is twelve pennies,1 2 so that
would be good pay.”
“I don’t think I’ll become wealthy with my show,” said Mrs. Wink
dryly, “but I do expect to take more than a shilling. And I’ve just
finished one turn, and don’t feel like doing another straight away.3
As you told me, I’m getting old. Come along tomorrow morning. With
luck I’ll have a nice little audience and if you want to be one of them,
that will be fine.”
The girl rubbed the toe of her sandal against her other leg.
“I want to see your Punch and Judy now.”
Mrs. Wink was really displeased now.
“I don’t know who you are,” she said, “but it seems to me that
you’re a very spoiled child. I don’t like spoiled children, so off you
go, now, and leave me to tidy up my booth for.the night.”
The girl went red with anger.
“I’ll tell you who I am. I’m Shirley Bentley, and I live at Bour-
ton with my grandma. There. That’s who I am.”
“Never heard of you before,” said Mrs. Wink unkindly, “but I’m
1 the coppers ɪ get in the net — медяки, которые мне бросают в сетку
2 a shilling is twelve pennies — в шиллинге двенадцать пенсов
3 ɪ... don’t feel like doing another straight away — мне... не хочется давать
сейчас еще одно представление
36

certain to remember you1 for the future. And now I’m going inside
my booth and you’d better run back to your family.2 They may be
looking for you, because it seems to me you’ve been here a long time.”
Shirley tossed her head. “I ran away from Grandma because I was
tired of waiting for her to finish shopping. And now I’ll come into
your booth with you and have a look at your Punch and Judy things.
That’s what I’ll do.”
“That’s what you won’t do,” corrected Mrs. Wink. “There isn’t all
that much room inside my booth, and I’m certainly not sharing it
with a spoiled child."
The girl drew a deep breath.3
“If you talk to me like that, I’ll start screaming again, and I dare
say a policeman will come along to see what you are doing to me.”
She was quite a clever child, because she had realized that the
people who ran the donkey business on the beach did not wish atten¬
tion attracted by a crying girl.
Mrs. Wink said, “Well, you can have your policeman without cry¬
ing for him. I see the policeman up there, and it seems to me he is
looking for someone. Perhaps he’s looking for you.”
Shirley looked up and exclaimed, “There’s Grandma, and she
looks worried.”
“I don’t know why,” said Mrs. Wink. “I think she’d have been
lucky if she had lost you for good.”4
Then she marched inside her booth and began to tidy her puppets
away, although she did look6 through the curtain once to see a rather
plump and silly woman running towards Shirley.
“Darling!” cried the woman as she ran. “Aly little darling! I thought
I had lost you!”
“I’ve just been riding donkeys,” she heard Shirley say. “I want
to stay here and ride some more.”
“Another day, darling, another day. We shall be late home as it
is.6 I’ve spent simply hours looking for you. If it hadn’t been for this
kind policeman, I might still be looking.” 7
1	I’m certain to remember you — я наверняка запомню тебя
3	you’d better run back to your family — тебе лучше бежать домой
3	to draw a deep breath — глубоко вздохнуть
4	for good — навсегда
6	she did look — она все-таки посмотрела
6	V,'e shall be late home as it is.— зд. Мы и так уже задержались.
7	If it hadn’t been for... 5 might still be looking.— Если бы не... я все еще
искала бы тебя.
37

Then everyone started talking together.
“All right now, ma’am?” asked the policeman.
“We must be going at once, darling,” said Shirley’s grandmother,
“Want another donkey ride,” cried Shirley.
There was a pause, and then the plump woman said, “Well we might
have time for just one ride. Although why you should want to ride a
donkey on the sands, Shirley, ! just don’t know. If you had ever said
you wanted to ride a donkey, I should have bought1 you one.”
“Here’s the donkey boy now,” said Shirley.
Then Mrs. Wink smiled to herself as she heard Sammy’s voice.
“Sorry,” said Sammy, “we’re closing down for the day. No. Very
sorry, but we are very particular as to2 how much our donkeys have
worked, and they’ve done enough for today. We shall be down on
the sands tomorrow, though, just after ten o’clock. Perhaps we’ll see
you then.”
Shirley started to scream.
“I want to ride now, not tomorrow. Grandma, make that horrid
boy take me for a ride now!”
Grandma said, “Hush, darling, people are listening,”
Policeman James took charge of the situation.8
“I’d take the little girl to your car, ma’am. I know Sammy Trap¬
per, here, and he is quite right in what he says. The Trappers are very
particular not to overwork their donkeys. Now, little girl, you go
quietly along with the lady.”
And such was the power of the Law that Shirley did stop screaming
and walked back to a large waiting car.
Rumshus, who had been trying to hide behind a donkey, came out.
“Is she gone?” he asked.
Sammy nodded. “And I hope I never see her again.”
“That girl,” pronounced Rumshus, “sure is a perfect horror.”
Then they went back to the donkeys, tidied away drinking buckets,
saw that the ground was left neat and, finally, led the donkeys back
to the stables.
Exchanging ideas:
1	. Why do children have to earn their living in Western countries
and America?
1	If you had ever said... I should have bought — Если бы ты когда-нибудь
сказала... я бы купила
2	we are very particular as to...— мы очень следим за тем...
5	took charge of the situation — зд. решил уладить конфликт
38

2.	What do you know about the problem of unemployment in Western
countries and America?
3.	What do you plan to do after school?
4,	How do your parents enjoy the right to work guaranteed by the So¬
viet Constitution?
* * *
Read the story Baby-sitting1 and answer the question: What thought
worried Ginnie? Why did she want to get a job?
BABY-SITTING
(from Ginnie’s Baby-sitting Business by Catherine Woolley)
“Mr. Gordon said I could play the piano for marching into assem¬
bly1 2 real soon,” said Geneva.
“Good,” Ginnie said.
Ginnie and her best friend, Geneva, were going home from school
this September afternoon. Sunlight turned the leaves to green gold,
and the air was full of summer warmth.
“Wouldn’t it be horrible if I made a mistake!”3 Geneva added.
“You won’t,” Ginnie assured her. “You’ve been taking music les¬
sons forever.” She was silent for a moment. “Are you going to be a
musician when you grow up?”
“I might,” Geneva said carelessly.
A car passed them, and Lucy Ransom waved4 at her classmates from
the front seat. They waved back. “Lucy’s going to art school in New
York Saturdays. Did she tell you?” Geneva said.
Ginnie nodded. “She’s wonderful in art.” She shook her head sadly.
“I’m awful in it.”
“She has talent. Mrs. Johnson told her she had. Come on in,” Ge¬
neva invited, changing the subject as they stopped at her front walk.
Ginnie shook her head. “No. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She often stopped at the Porter house on the way home from school.
She and Geneva had been best friends for a long time. But today she
1 to baby-sit — сидеть с ребенком, когда родителей нет дома (распространен¬
ный среди молодежи способ зарабатывать карманные деньги)
2 assembly [ə'sembhj — собрание школьников перед уроками
8 Wouldn’t it be horrible if I made a mistake! — Вот будет ужас, если я оши¬
бусь!
4 to wave — махать
39

wanted to get home. She was conscious of1 troubled feeling, and she
wanted time to figure out what was worrying her.
She walked on slowly, deep in her thoughts. She passed a neighbor,2
Mrs. DeGraw, walking her dog, and said, “Hello, Airs. DeGraw,”
knowing that she had seen them.
Here was her own block, and here was the house, with its trim
green lawn and bushes. Ginnie went up the steps and pushed open the
door. Honey, her dog, greeted her with enthusiastic wiggles.3
“Oh, I know!” Ginnie paused [pɔ:zd] to stroke his head.4 “You tell
that to all the girls!” Honey shook himself happily and followed her
into the kitchen.
“Hello, dear.” Mother was mixing a cake, and she looked up as
Ginnie came in.
“Hi.”3
“Did you have a good day?”
“It was all right.” Ginnie put her books on the table and opened
the refrigerator door. She got out a carton of milk and reached into
the cupboard for a glass and a box of cookies.
Mother paused for a moment with her mixing, to follow her
daughter’s movements.
“Anything worrying you?” she asked.
“No.” Ginnie pulled a chair to the table and sat down with her
milk. And then the thing that was troubling her boiled up and over in
a single question. “Mother, have I got any talent?”
Mother looked up in surprise. “What brings that up?” ’
It wasa relief ’ to talk about it. “Well,” Ginnie said, and drank some
milk, “Geneva can play the piano and she’s going to play for marching
into assembly. And Lucy is going to art school in New York Saturdays,
because Mrs. Johnson says she has talent. But I can’t play the piano,
and I’m terrible in art, and I haven’t got any talent!”
“You never wanted to take music lessons,” her mother reminded
her.
“I know I didn’t. I like music,” Ginnie explained, “but I just
don’t want to play the piano. And I don’t want to take art lessons.
1	She was conscious of — зд. Она ощущала
3	neighbor (амер.) — neighbour
3	wiggles — визги
4	to stroke his head — погладить по голове (собаку)
5	Hi. [haɪ] — Привет.
6	What brings that up? — зд, В чем дело?
’ relief — облегчение
40

But”...her troubled eyes looked into her mother’s for help... “haven’t
I got any talent?”
“You can cook.”
''That’s a talent?”
Mother laughed. “It’s a very useful art.”
“Geneva isn’t any good at cooking,” Ginnie said with some satis¬
faction. She thought of Anna, the cousin1 who lived with Grandma.
“Anna can sew real well.”
“I’d be delighted to teach you to sew,” Mother said.
Ginnie sighed1 2 deeply. “I don’t like to sew either.”
“Well, I wouldn’t worry,” Zdother told her. “The important thing
is to have lots of different interests. You’ll probably develop some
talent that you don’t suspect at all right now.”
“I wish I could earn some money to buy Christmas presents,”
Ginnie said quite unexpectedly. Christmas seemed years away on this
September day, but suddenly a new problem sailed across Ginnie’s
horizon.
She rinsed her glass. There seemed to be nothing to gain at this
point by further discussing the matter of talent. She took .Mumbo, the
little black cat, and settled herself with a book in the big chair in
the living room. It was Friday, and homework could wait.
Mother’s fresh lemon-jelly cake was so good that both Ginnie and
her father took a second piece at dinner. “That’s really cake!” Daddy
remarked,3 passing his plate.
“Thank you,” Mother said modestly.-She glanced at Ginnie. “My
talent,” she murmured, and they both giggled. Daddy asked what the
joke was.
“Just something between us girls,” Mother replied, and suddenly,
for no reason, Ginnie felt lighthearted again. She played Scrabble4
with Daddy after dinner and forgot her problem.
Saturday morning was gloriously warm. Ginnie went over to Gene¬
va’s. Geneva was practicing as she rang the bell, and the sound of the
piano woke troubled thoughts again.
“Hi!” Geneva greeted her. “I just finished practicing. Oh, Ginnie,
I want to show you the most adorable thing!” She led the way into the
living room and picked up a small box from the table, “Don’t tell my
1 cousin — кузина, двоюродная сестра
? to sigh — вздохнуть
8 to remark — отметить
4 Scrabble — игра типа «эрудит»
41

mother. She’s upstairs. I’m going to give her this for her birthday.”
The gift was a bracelet and earrings1 of blue stones that caught
the flash of the sun as Geneva lifted them from the box. Ginnie gasped.
“Oh, they’re beautiful!”
“They cost two dollars. I saved my allowance.1 2 They’re for when
she goes out to dinner,” Geneva explained happily,
“I wish I had a bracelet like this!”
“We’re, not grown up enough,” Geneva said.
“I mean just to look at.” For as she looked at the lovely bracelet, a
desire to possess3 beautiful things swelled into Ginnie’s heart. Sud¬
denly she returned the bracelet to the box and looked at Geneva with
decision. “We ought to earn some money,” she said.
“О. K..” Geneva agreed. “What for?”
“Lots of things. I’d like to buy some beads. You know, the long
kind.”
“So would I.”
“And if we could earn some money,” Ginnie went on, wrarming to the
idea, “maybe we could even go to New York some time — just you
and I — and go to a museum or something.”
“W’e could save our allowances and go.”
But there was this newborn wish for money of her own, to spend on
luxuries of her choosing.4 “I’d like to earn some,” Ginnie repeated.
“How can we?”
Geneva thought a little. “Baby-sitting?”
They looked at each other. Ginnie was an only child, and so was
Geneva. They had had little or no experience with babies. Besides,
they were only eleven.
“Most kids who baby-sit are older,” Ginnie said.
Geneva v/as not easily daunted.5 6 “We could try, couldn’t we?”
And hope sprang up in Ginnie too. “Yes!” she cried. “Let’s! I know,
Geneva! If we offered to sit together, that might make up for5 not being
older.”
1 bracelet ['breɪslrt] and earrings — браслет и серьги
2 allowance [ə'lauəns] — ад. карманные деньги
3 to possess — обладать
4 of her choosing — по своему выбору
6 Geneva was not easily daunted.— Женеву не просто было обескуражить.
6 if we offered... that might make up for — если мы предложим.., это возмес¬
тит
42

“Good idea,” Geneva agreed. “And we could get lower rates.1 Most
kids get seventy-five cents an hour. We could get fifty.”
“You get twenty-five and I get twenty-five,” Ginnie agreed.
“And if we could1 * 3 stay three hours and get two jobs a week, that’d
be good!” Geneva said with satisfaction.
Suddenly Ginnie was burning for action. “Let’s go out nowand try
and find some jobs!” she cried. “I know! In the block below my house
there are a lot of people with little children. Let’s go there.”
They set out with high hopes. Mrs. West, in the first house, was
home, and received their offer of service politely. She had a small
baby, and she had a sitter, she said. But she was glad to know they
were available in case of need.3
“The Frasers live in the next house,” Ginnie said, as they went
up the walk. “They just moved here.”
Mrs. Fraser’s small daughter Susan was three. She came to the
door behind her mother. Susan had big brown eyes, red-gold hair and
pink cheeks, she was chubby and adorable, and Ginnie fell in love at
first sight. Susan, however, went away to the other side of the room.
“You two are awfully young, aren’t you?” Susan’s mother said
doubtfully, looking from one to the other.
“That’s why we’re going to baby-sit together,” Geneva explained.
“And only charge fifty cents,”4 * Ginnie added.
“You couldn’t come at night,” Mrs. Fraser protested.
The girls looked at each other. “We could come after school, if
you wanted to go shopping,” Geneva pointed out. “And Saturdays.
Sundays too,” she added hopefully.
“It’s mostly at night that I need a sitter,” Mrs. Fraser said, “but
I’ll remember you two.”
They told themselves she really meant it, even if she did think
them young. Both girls left their telephone numbers.
“Oh, Geneva,” Ginnie said, as they came out of Mrs. Fraser’s
house, “isn’t that Susan adorable?” She glanced back and waved, as the
little girl quickly ran away from the window.
They made several other calls,6 and Ginnie went home. She told
1 rates — зд. цена
3 and if we could — если бы мы могли
8 they were available in case of need — зд. к ним можно было бы обратиться
в случае необходимости
4 And only charge fifty cents — и брать только пятьдесят центов
6 to make a call — заходить к кому-либо
43

her mother about the morning’s visits. “So if any woman calls up about
baby-sitting, you say we’ll cornel”
It was hard to concentrate on schoolwork that week, with the idea
of a baby-sitting job. Ginnie hurried home each day hoping that a
phone call might have come.1 But the days passed, and there were no
calls to baby-sit. Gradually the excitement went away, and Ginnie’s
great ideas of an independent income1 2 were forgotten too.
The school year was getting to an end now. Ginnie worked hard
at homework. Geneva played for marching into assembly with never a
stumble.3 Ginnie admired and envied, and the worry over having no
talent herself returned to her.
Sometimes she wished again she could buy beautiful things to have
and to admire. Why, she thought impatiently, doesn’t somebody ask
us to baby-sit!
Then one day the call came. Mother opened the door when Ginnie
came home from school. ‘Mrs. West has to go out unexpectedly, and
she’d like you to wheel the baby in his carriage while she’s gone."
Ginnie couldn’t believe it. “Oh, I’ve got to call Geneva!”
“Be quick about it. I told her you’d be over as soon as you came in.”
Geneva arrived at Mrs. West’s on the run soon after Ginnie got
there. “I won’t be gone more than an hour,” Mrs. West told them.
“Bobby’s asleep. IT! put his carriage out, and you just walk up and
down and around the block if you want to.”
Ginnie wheeled the carriage first, feeling it her right, as the baby’s
mother had called her instead of Geneva.
“Now let me, Ginnie,” Geneva said. They took turns,1 block by
block. The small West boy slept peacefully in his blue blankets.
“Isn’t he darling?” Ginnie murmured, adoring.
“I wish he’d wake up,” Geneva complained.
“No!” Ginnie said. “He might cry.”
“It’s no fun when he’s asleep!”
They began to attract attention as they walked. Lucy came down
the street and paused for an explanation. She admired the baby, and
Ginnie began to enjoy an important feeling.
Peter Ladd, who lived next door to Ginnie, came by on his bicycle.
“Whose kid?” he shouted.
1 hoping that a phone call might have come — в надежде, что кто то звонил
2 income — доход
» stumble — зд. запинка
*’ to take turns — делать что-либо по очереди
44

“Sh!” Ginnie said. “You’ll wake him up. And he’s not a kid, by
the way. He’s a little baby boy, and we’re baby-sitting him.”
“Looks like baby-walking to me,” Peter returned cheerfully.
“Want to see him?” Geneva cried.
“Nope.”1 He was off.
“Boys!” Geneva said disgustedly.
“Oh!” Ginnie’s eyes were on the baby. “You did wake him up, shout¬
ing. Oh, isn’t he the sweetest thing!” She stopped the carriage. “Hello!’*
she said softly, as the baby’s wondering blue eyes looked into hers.
“Oh, he’s a sweet darling lamb!” In her enthusiasm Geneva leaned
over the carriage and put a hand on the baby’s blanket. “Kitchy, kit-
chy, koo!” Geneva cried, chucking8 the baby under his chin.
1 Nope.— Нет.
3 to chuck — похлопывать
45

That was something new and unexpected to the darling lamb. His
mouth turned down, his eyes closed and suddenly Bobby was crying
loudly.
“Now you’ve scared him!” Ginnie cried. “There, darling; there,
darling!” She rocked the carriage gently.
“Give him something to play with.” Geneva picked up a rattle tied
to the carriage and shook it before the baby’s eyes. The loud cries
only grew' louder.
“No, let’s just walk. And I know,” Ginnie said suddenly, as she
had a new idea. “Let’s sing. Singing puts babies to sleep.” She began
to sing softly as they moved along with the carriage. “Rock-a-bye baby,
on the treetop. .
Geneva joined in, and they walked slowly on, singing together,
eyes on the small unhappy bundle waving its arms in the carriage.
And gradually, as the soothing sound and motion reached him,- the
crying stopped, eyelids dropped, and the junior Mr. West drifted into
dreamland once more. He was still asleep when his mother returned.
“Oh, thank you both so much,” Mrs. West said. “You girls saved
my life. Come on in while I pay you.”
She gave them sixty cents instead of fifty. “It’s not much when
you split1 it,” she said.
Ginnie ran home in seventh heaven, bursting into the house.
“How did it go?” Mother asked, coming downstairs to hear her
report.
“Just marvelous!” Ginnie was so thrilled and excited she danced
around like a top. “Oh, that baby is the most precious thing! She gave
us sixty cents. Oh, he’s the sweetest thing! He only cried when Geneva
tickled him. Mrs. West said we saved her life. And she also,” Ginnie
cried, “said she might call us again! Oh, I hope she calls tomorrow!”
Exchanging ideas:
1.	What do you know about the ways children in the West earn money?
2.	Did Ginnie and Rumshus (from the story “The Spoiled Child”)
have the same reasons for earning money?
3.	How do you get your pocket money?
4.	Would you like the idea of doing some work after classes to earn
some money? What things would you like to do?
1 to split — разделить
46

UNIT 4
Read Part I of the story Bright April and answer the questions: What
kind of pupil did April make at school? What can you say about her
family?
BRIGHT APRIL
(after Marguerite de Angeli)
April Bright is a Brownie Scout.1
Her skin is the color3 of coffee
with good cream in it. “Why must
we be different?” April asks her
mother. “I don’t feel different.”
Part I
The trolley car drove along German-town Avenue. Past the Market
Square, down the hill, across the wide street where the market stood
and where there was a movie3 and several big stores. April was on her
way back home from the dentist who had just fixed her tooth.4 It
hurt a little. When she cried, “Ouch!”5 a curly head popped up over the
seat back and two blue eyes looked angrily into April’s. A tiny pink
finger pointed at her,6 and the little girl said:
“You’re brown!”
J Brownie Scout — девочка-скаут младшего возраста
2 color (амер.) = colour
8 movie — кинотеатр
4 to fix a tooth — залечить зуб
6 ouch [autf] — ай, ой (восклицание при боли)
6 to point at — указывать на
47

The child’s mother looked displeased, but April’s mamma just
smiled and said;
“Yes, she’s brown, and you’re pink. Isn’t she a nice warm color?”
But the little girl didn’t answer, and she and her mother got off the
car. April’s smile faded, and she turned to ask:
“Am I brown, Mamma?”
“Yes, of course. You are just the color of coffee with good cream in
it. And you are just like your name and the month you were born in;
dark April one minute and bright April the next!” She pressed the but¬
ton for the next stop.1
April felt the place where the tooth had been fixed. It wasn’t so
bad going to the dentist after all. Besides, it was fun to see the store
windows and to ride in the trolley, especially on the way back. How
she had been afraid of it! Now, it was all over and the broken corner was
mended. Now she could laugh about it. She and Tom had run into each
other near the stairs the other day, and somehow, April’s tooth was
broken. Probably it was Tom’s drumstick that struck her. He was
never without those drumsticks; never for a moment. Papa sometimes
took them away from under Tom’s pillow after he was asleep, but Tom
always woke up and discovered his loss and Papa always gave them
back to him.
“The trouble is,” Papa said, “your mind is on those drumsticks’
when it ought to be on something else. If you had been looking where
you were going instead of playing with the sticks3 you wouldn’t have
broken April’s tooth. You can’t even study your lessons without
tapping on the books or on the desk, and you nearly drive your
mother crazy with your eternal beating on something.”
It was bitter cold when Mamma and April stepped off the trolley
car, but they had only a short way to walk, and though it was against
the wind and the streets were icy, they were soon turning in at their
own gate.
“I hope Papa is home and the house is warm,” April said.
“Yes, and / hope there is a letter from Ken and that Christine
comes home for the week end.”
ɪ pressed the button for the next stop — нажала на кнопку звонка, чтобы води¬
тель остановил троллейбус
2 your mind is on those drumsticks — ты все время думаешь о своих барабан¬
ных палочках
? Jf you had been looking where you were going instead of playing with the
sticks — Если бы ты смотрел под ноги, а не стучал барабанными палочками
48

April was always glad to get inside the house, where it was pleas¬
ant and clean, even though some of the houses just a few doors down
the street were dirty and ill-kept. Mr. Bright was home. He had fin¬
ished his work and built a fire in the fireplace. He sat before the fire
reading and dozing,1 with his feet on a stool, as usual, to rest them,
for his work took him on a fifteen-mile walk every day. He was a post¬
man. Today was Saturday, so there had been only one mail delivery2
and the wzalk was shorter. But it was hard walking on the streets that
were covered with ice and snow, and the heavy shoes and galoshes
[gə'lɔʃɪz] were tiring. It was the coldest winter for many years, and
Papa said many of the people he served hadn’t been out of the house for
weeks.
“If I didn’t bring them letters and papers,” he said, “I guess they
wouldn’t know3 anything that’s going on in the world.” He enjoyed
his work, carrying messages4 of help and good will to people. Even
those that brought sad news made him feel close to them.
“Only this morning,” he continued, “I delivered a letter to a moth¬
er whose boy is still in an Army hospital. I remember when that
boy was little and when he first started to school. I remember when he
went away,” he finished sadly. Then he laughed. “I guess I’m kind of a
heart-throb in the community.5 Sometimes I’m Cupid, sometimes I’m
Santa Claus, sometimes I’m The Law.”
“Next week,” April reminded him, “you’ll be Cupid. It’s nearly
Valentine’s Day,6 remember?”
“Yes,” said Mamma as she went to hang up her things, “and we’d
better be sure to send Ken’s letter off today or it won’t reach him in
time. April, you begin.” April sat down to write.
There was always family news to tell. Homely things like what they
had for supper, or that Tom was helping Mr. Meyer in the drugstore7
on Saturdays. Mamma said Ken would be interested to hear that the
old roof over the kitchen had been mended and that Papa put new
boards in the back porch. Just as she reached this point, she knew it
1 to doze — дремать
2	there had been only one mail delivery — почту разносили один раз
3	II I didn’t bring them... they wouldn’t know — если бы я не приносил им.,,
они бы не знали
4	message — послание
6	I’m... a heart-throb in the community — зд. я... нужен людям как воздух
6 Valentine’s Day — February 14 — the day when people of opposite sex ex¬
change sentimental cards (valentines)
’ drugstore — аптека
49

was supper time. Maybe Chris would come home tonight! She finished
off her part of the family letter with a valentine drawing. Ken said
he liked letters with her pictures best.
All through the evening they waited for Chris. When she didn’t
come Mamma said:
“We know there aren’t enough nurses at the hospital. Chrissy
has just had to give up her free day1 again to help. It is hard for her,
but she is young and strong.”
April liked to have Chris come home. She brought strange and
interesting stories about the patients in the hospital. She looked so
neat in her uniform that April thought she, herself, would like to be a
nurse too. Then she remembered that she and Sophie had planned to be
teachers like Miss Bell. Sophie lived on German-town Avenue, where
her papa kept a drugstore. She was in the same grade at school as April
and belonged to the same Brownie Scout troop.
Monday, when April came home from school, there were letters
from Chris and from Ken. Sure enough, Chris had stayed on duty
because one of the other student nurses was away on leave.1 2
Ken wrote, “I may get home soon, but don’t count on it too much
because some of us have to stay here. It seems like a waste of time now,
and wre are all so anxious to go back and start on our jobs at home.
I don’t mind doing my bit,3 but I’d like to be sure of what we are com¬
ing home to.” April wondered what he meant. Here was home just
as it had always been. What could he mean?
Mamma said, “He means he hopes there will be a place for him to
use the training he has been getting in architecture ['ɑ:kɪtekʧə] at
State College.” April still didn’t know what he meant. But she knew
from Mamma’s look that it meant something to be anxious about.
Wednesday of the next week was Valentine’s Day. As usual, it
was cold, so April carried the valentine she had made for Miss Bell
under her coat. Some of the other children carried valentines too. April
couldn’t help wondering if any of them were for her. They put them all
into a big box Miss Bell had ready.
April’s name was called twice for a valentine. One said, “Guess
who?” and April felt sure it was from Sophie, for when she looked up,
Sophie’s eyes were smiling at her over her hands that covered her
1 to give up her free day — отказаться от выходного дня
2 on leave — в отпуске
3 to do one’s bit — внести свой вклад
50

mouth. Then the box was empty, and the hands on the clock pointed
nearly closing time.1
Miss Bell quieted the chatter2 in the room with a motion of her
hands, then said, “This week we celebrated Lincoln’s Birthday, and
we have had Valentine’s Day, Next week we have another birthday.
Do you know whose?”
“Washington’s Birthday! Washington’s Birthday!” Everyone tried
to make himself heard at once, saying it over and over till .Miss Bell
said, “SSHH! SSHH! Quiet, please!”
The closing bell sounded, and it was time to go home.
There was another letter from Ken. Papa read it at the supper table.
In it, Ken said, “How I wish I could see you all. I’m still hoping but
1 closing time — время окончания занятий
2 chatter — зд, шумок
51

it will be some time before I get home. Lots of the fellows have gone,
but it looks as if I will be here for a long while. If only there will be
real peace when I do come home, this time spent so far away from
you would not seem so endless.”
- April looked at Mamma anxiously, but Mamma kept her eyes
down. The letter went on: “We heard the concert last night and I
thought of you listening too. I could see Pop1 sitting there with
his feet up, and you, Mother, in and out of the room, listening when
you could. April, I suppose, was on the floor with the back page of the
newspaper and Tom coming along whistling and rattling1 * 3 those drum¬
sticks...” He didn’t write much more, but they all knew how much he
wanted to come home. His room was all ready for him, and Mamma
had washed the curtains, too, so the house would look welcoming.
At four o’clock on Thursday it was time for Brownie meeting.
April loved being a Brownie, but she was eager to be a real Scout
when she was ten. Sophie was a Brownie, too. The girls could hardly
wait for the day to come each week, for Mrs. Cole, their leader, always
had something interesting for them to do. Usually it was something
they could make.
Now Mrs. Cole was showing the girls how to make the most excit¬
ing things. “It will teach you to remember how necessary these
things are to health and better living if you make them and see what
they are for,” she said. But the girls liked to do them because they were
fun, because they liked to be at Mrs. Cole’s house, and because they
liked to be together.
They were making two miniature ['mɪnjəʧə] tents like the ones
used at the Scout Camp, and all the things needed to furnish them.
At first they made things too large, until Mrs. Cole reminded them:
“Just imagine that you are standing inside the tent by this little
table we are making, and think how small these things would be.”
April almost could feel herself growing small like Alice in Wonder¬
land, and imagined that she was sitting on that tiny stool. That helped.
She made the spoons so tiny that the first one broke, but after that they
went better. She was so successful with them that Mrs. Cole asked her
to show the other girls how she did it.
It was the day before Washington’s Birthday. Papa had gone
off long ago on his mail route,3 and Mamma stood at the door making
1 Pop — папа
3 to rattle — стучать, бренчать, греметь
3 had gone off long ago on his mail route — давно ушел разносить почту
52

sure that Tom and April wore their rubbers and were well buttoned
up,1 for it was very cold again. She frowned at the dirty street. It has
rained, snowed, and frozen, until it was almost impossible to walk. Papa
and several others in the neighborhood tried to keep the street clean
and orderly, but even Papa couldn’t do much with the thick dirty ice.
But the men who gathered the trash1 * 3 were asking for more pay so they
could live decently,8 and refused to work until they got it. Papa said
he didn’t blame them, but he did wish they would collect the trash.
April knew that if daddy wasn’t so good at mending and fixing
things they would find it harder to keep clean. She knew that most of
these old houses in the street had no heat4 except the one stove. The
water froze in the pipes,5 and it took a lot of water to keep a family
clean.
One of the first things Miss Bell talked about that morning was
the disorder of the streets. She spoke in assembly so all the children
could hear.
“We are each one of us responsible for the cleanliness of our neigh¬
borhood. 6 * If the wagons ’ do not come to take the trash away, then we
must keep it put away neatly until they do come. How many of you
will promise to go home this afternoon and do your part in cleaning
up the streets?” Almost every child put up his hand. Then she talked
for a while about the importance of cleanliness and neatness.
“If we are clean and neat about our homes and about ourselves,”
she said, “we will be healthier and we will respect ourselves. How can we
expect others to respect us if we don’t respect ourselves?”
April was glad that Mamma was so particular about keeping her
dean and neat. She looked at Tom, who sat on the other side of the
assembly room. Yes, he looked shining clean too.
There was a little play about George Washington. When the classes
went back to their rooms, Miss Bell talked more about Washington.
Then she spoke of other men and women in our nation’s history who
1 making sure that Tom and April wore their rubbers and were ail buttoned
up — чтобы убедиться, что Том и Эйприл надели галоши и застегнули
пальто
3 trash — мусор
8 decently —зд. хорошо
4 heat — зд. отопление
5 the water froze in the pipes — вода замерзала в трудах
6 We аге... responsible for the cleanliness of our neighborhood.— Мы... отве¬
чаем за чистоту нашего района.
’ wagon ['wægərɪi — зд. мусорный фургон
53

had given their time, and sometimes their lives, in order that we might
have a more perfect union. She reminded the class that this country is
for ail, and that to be unfair or unkind to anyone because of his race or
religion [rɪ'hdʒən] is neither Christian1 nor American.
April remembered hearing Papa say the same thing only the night
before. He had been reading an article aloud to Mamma, which said
that some of the soldiers were not allowed to go to the canteens but
had to go off by themselves.2 She knew, too, that Miss Bell was think¬
ing of the quarrel among some of the boys in the schoolyard the other
day.
Now, standing in front of the class, Miss Bell stopped looking so
serious as she asked, “Who can tell us something about Washington?”
Many hands went up.
The children were eager to tell things they remembered. April
wished she knew something to tell.
Just then Miss Bell spoke to her. “April, why don’t you tell us
about the first man who was killed in the battle of liberty?” But
April said she didn’t know about that.
“You don’t? He was one of your people. And there were many oth¬
ers who helped to fight the battle of liberty. Aren’t you proud?”
April was proud. She looked over at Edith, and they smiled at each
other.
Just before school closed that afternoon Miss Bell reminded them
about cleaning up the trash in the streets.
It sounded quite fine when Miss Bell talked about it. But when
April and Sophie came out of the schoolyard and saw the street, it was
pretty sad. Even the sidewalks were covered with thick dirty ice and
frozen snow. Here and there along the way, boxes of empty cans and
papers stood, overflowing onto the walks.3 It was not a pretty sight,
and April wished that the men woul-d come1 along to collect it. She
didn’t know where to begin. She wished she could be on the safety
patrol6 like Tom. There he stood down the street in his white patrol
1	Christian ['krɪstjən] — христианин; христианский
2	the soldiers were not allowed to go to the canteens but had to go off by them¬
selves — солдатам не разрешали ходить в столовую, они вынуждены были
питаться где придется
3	boxes... stood, overflowing onto the walks — из переполненных ящиков му¬
сор высыпался на тротуар
1	wished that the men would come — хотела бы, чтобы пришли люди
6	wished she could be on the safety patrol — зд, хотела бы помогать младшим
переходить улицу
54

belt, helping the little children across the street. He held his drumsticks
in one hand, using them as a signal to call the children, or held them
up for cars to stop. He looked very important.
April could see her father already busy in front of the house. He
looked up when she came through the gate. “We must work on this ice
while it is thawing,”1 he said. “Get me a pail of water, that’s a good
girl.”
April went in to get it. Mamma was in the kitchen making the
fire so the water would be hot. Together they carried water and broom
and helped get the steps and the walk cleared.
The next morning there wrere several of the neighbors out to
help the girls and boys fulfil their promise.2
At Brownie meeting that afternoon, Mrs. Cole gave the girls a sur¬
prise. She came in from the kitchen with a tray3 full of baskets.
“Since this is Washington’s Birthday, I thought we would cele¬
brate,” she said. The baskets were filled with candies, and on the
handle of each was a small American flag and a slip of paper with
each girl’s name.
“These are to remind us that we are all Americans,— I hope you
will keep the flag where you can see it every day, and that it will re¬
mind you to be real Americans and good Brownie Scouts.”
Then she spoke of how much better the street looked and how
proud she was of the Brownies. She began to sing the Brownie song,
and the girls joined in:
“We’re the Brownies, here’s our aim —
Lend a hand and play the game,
Where the Brownies live and play,
That is where I love to stay.”
They fastened4 the flags to their Brownie dresses and began to
chatter and eat, all talking at once.
Felicia said, “My brother Tony says he’ll bring me a real basket
from the South Pacific when he comes home. We had a letter from him
today. It took two weeks for it to come!”
“Two weeks is a very short time to come so far,” said Mrs. Cole.
“It is wonderful the way the mail is carried during this time. It used
to take months for a letter to come that distance.”
1 to thaw [θɔ:] — таять
8 to fulfil the promise — сдержать обещание
8 tray — поднос
4 to fasten ['fevsn] — прикрепить
55

“My daddy says it used to take weeks for a letter to go from here
to Boston,” April said.
“I’m sure your daddy knows some interesting things about how
people have communicated with each other,” Mrs, Cole said. “April,
why don’t you ask him to tell you? Then we can talk about it the next
time we meet.”
April agreed. She was sure Papa would know lots about the way
messages had been carried. He was always'reading and said there
seemed to be no end to the things you could learn about the develop¬
ment of post office service.
* * *
Read Part II of the story Bright April and- answer the questions: What
things did April and her friends do as Brownies? Did April ever feel
that she was different from other children?
BRIGHT APRIL
Part II
When it was time to go home, April walked the long way round
with Sophie, and when Sophie told her, “Come in just a minute and
see my new paper dolls,” she went in. It was such fun to try on the
dresses made from paper that she stayed longer than she meant to.
Sophie’s mamma was setting the table when she left, and it was be¬
ginning to get dark.
Mamma always said, “Home is the place for boys and girls when
night comes.” Even Tom was expected to come home straight from
school before going anywhere else, and to be home well before night¬
fall.1 April ran all the way home.
“Is that you, April?” Papa called from the living room, and almost
before she could answer, Mamma called from the kitchen. “What kept
you, dear?” It was all right when she told them where she had been,
but she was reminded to come home right after the Brownie meeting
next time.
“And where is Tom?” Mamma wondered. “It is high time he was
here.1 2 Supper is all ready and will spoil if we don’t eat soon. Why
doesn’t he come?” Mamma looked anxious.
1 nightfall — наступление вечера
2 It is high time he was here.— Ему давно пора быть дома.
56

Finally she asked April to help put the food on the table, and they
sat down to eat. Still there was no whistle and no rattling of drumsticks
to tell them that Tom was on his way home.
There was so much discussion at the table about Tom and the need
for children to obey their parents and come home at certain time
that April forgot all about what she was going to ask Papa. They
had already had their supper when they heard someone at the door.
April recognized Tom’s voice, but he was not whistling, and someone
seemed to be with him. Papa got up to see who it was. He was gone
only a few moments and came back with Tom, who looked very sad.
Even Mamma didn’t say anything about where he had been, but she
and Papa talked quietly in the hall. She only told Tom to eat his sup¬
per, and then, while she and April washed the dishes, Papa talked to
him in the living room. It was all very mysterious to April. Besides,
Mamma looked worried and didn’t speak as she went about the kitchen
work. It made April feel as if something dreadful had happened. At
last she could bear1 it no longer.
“What is it, Mamma? What has happened? Is anything wrong?”
Mamma thought for a moment, then she answered, “There could
have been1 2 3 something terribly wrong. If it weren’t for the fact that4 *
nearly everybody knows your father and knows what a fine man he
is, Tom’s name would be on the police record.4 Tom and Nick have
been playing with some boys in that empty building down the street.
Today, just after they went into the building, the police carne. It
seems that these other boys have been taking fixtures6 * from the build¬
ing and selling them. Tom and Nick had nothing to do with that
and didn’t know anything about it, but the police took them all to the
station house. 6 Luckily, they know Papa. They called the school prin¬
cipal, ’ and he told them that both boys have always been good citi¬
zens in school. So they didn’t put Tom or Nick’s name on the police
record. If they had, it would stand against them all their lives,8 per¬
1 to bear — выносить, терпеть
3 There could have been...— Могло бы случиться...
3 if it weren’t for the fact that...— Если бы не тот факт, что...
4 Tom’s name would be on the police record — Том был бы взят на учет в по¬
лиции
6 fixture — арматура
8 station house — зд. полицейский участок
г school principal — директор школы
8 If they had, it would stand against them all their lives — Если бы они это
сделали, они бы испортили им всю жизнь
57

haps. It just doesn’t pay to get into bad company. I think we shall
have to move.” Mamma looked sad.
‘Move?” thought April. “And leave Sophie? Leave the Brownie
troop?”
Papa kept Tom in the living room for a long time, and not once
that evening did they hear the rattling of Tom’s drumsticks.
In the morning there was a letter from Chris saying she would be
home on Saturday. Mamma began to plan for her weekly shopping.
To April it seemed as if they always had good things to eat, but when
Chris came home, Mamma tried to have the things she especially
liked. They began to wait for her after lunch on Saturday, but it was
nearly dinner time before she came.
“At the last minute,” she complained, “I had to go and help move a
patient to another room. I don’t mind so much, but nothing ever
pleases the supervisor,1 and she never says we do good work.”
“Take it easy, take it easy,”1 2 3 Papa reminded her. “The angrier she
is, the nicer you must be. Finally she will be ashamed to treat you less
well than you treat her. You’ll see.”
“Weil," Chris replied, “I suppose so, but sometimes it seems too
hard to bear.” Then she brightened at the sight of Ken’s letter lying on
the books beside Papa’s chair. April watched Chris as she read through
the letter. But all she said was, “OH-o-oh,” and looked at his picture
standing on the shelf.
Soon young people began to arrive to see Chris while she was
home. Some of them stayed only a few moments, and some of them
sat down to supper. April was allowed to stay up later than usual
and watch while they danced to the rhythm of Tom’s drumsticks.
Mamma sat down at the piano. April wished it could go on forever,
she wished that always people could be happy and that everyone
would like everyone else.9
Next morning April surprised Chris by taking her breakfast for
her to eat in bed. She had learned how to set a breakfast tray at Brow-
' nie meetings since Chris was home the last time. She knew how to put
all the necessary things in their right places, on a fresh cloth,4 and how
1 supervisor — зд. начальница
2 take it easy — не волнуйся
3 April wished it could go on forever, she wished that always people could be
happy and that everyone would like everyone eɪse.— Эйприл хотела, чтобы
это продолжалось вечно, чтобы люди были счастливы и любили друг друга.
4 cloth — салфетка
58

much more attractive1 it would look with a flower. Sis was pleased.
Evening came almost before they knew it, and it was time for Chris
to get back to the hospital.
“Back to books and classes; back to carrying water for old men and
women,” she said, laughing. But April knew she loved every bit of it,
even the hard part.
All that week and the next, there was no word from Ken. April
knew from the way Mamma watched out the window for Mr. Ben¬
son who brought their mail. Papa worked in another part of town. Mr.
Benson had known Ken since he was a little boy. He knew how Mamma
waited for a letter from him. Yes, it was like Papa said, “The postman
is a kind of heart-throb in the community.”
“Never mind,” he said. “You’ll get a letter very soon. It’s like that.
When they get their orders, you don’t hear for several weeks, then one
day you get a letter and you know where he is, then you forget all about
how long you waited for it. You’ll see! You know there is no better mail
service in the world than we have!”
Mr. Benson was proud of his work, just like Papa was. Mamma
would laugh1 2 and feel a little better because she knew how many
anxious mothers there were besides herself, but she couldn’t help
wishing for the letter.
It wasn’t till the night before Brownie meeting that April remem¬
bered to ask Papa about the Mail Service and how it all began.
Papa told her many things about his work and how important
it was to deliver3 the mail regularly, no matter what the weather
or how difficult it was to get it through to its destination.4 Then he
told April how the words “post office”, “post road”, and “postman”
came to be used. He said it all went back to the days of the ancient
Romans, whose language was Latin. When the government of this
country set up its regular mail service, it marked the roads with posts
at one-mile intervals along a road just as it was done in ancient times.
The mail was carried over these roads, and they were called post roads.
Then when offices were set up where the mail was taken care of, they
were called post offices.
“In those days, of course, the mail was carried on horse-back or by
1 attractive — привлекательный
2 would laugh — обычно смеялась
8 to deliver — разносить
4 destination — место назначения
59

mail coach,1 in which passengers2 were also carried. A mail coach was
harnessed to the fastest horses. You’d better go to the library and ask
for a book that would tell about mail coaches,” he said. “I could tell
you, but if you find it for yourself, you will remember it better. Be¬
sides, I think it a good idea for you to realize how helpful it is to
be able to go to the library for information.”
When Thursday came, April had lots to tell the other Brownies
and Mrs. Cole about the post.
The Brownies were still working on the two little tents and the
things to put in them. Felicia was sewing the edge of the second tent and
talking busily, now that April had finished her story.
“I think I’ll be a dressmaker when I grow up,” she said.
They all began to talk of what they would do when they were
grown up.
“I’m going to be a typewriter3 and work in an office,” said Edith.
“Don’t you mean typist? The typewriter is the machine you use,”
Mrs. Cole said.
The girls giggled,4 * and Sophie said she was going to be a drug¬
gist6 and help her daddy in the store.
April said, “I thought I’d like to be a nurse like Chris but now I
think I’ll be a hat designer6 and be the head of a big store.”
One of the girls laughed and said, “You? Why, they never let —”
But she got no farther, for Mrs. Cole quickly put her hand over the
child’s mouth and kept her from talking. She looked kind, but very
serious.
“Suppose all of you learn to do the things you have to do now as
well as you possibly can, then you will be ready to do any work.
You are respected for the way you do your work, 7 any work. Remem¬
ber, many people cannot do the things they want to do.” The girls
looked at one another, but they did not laugh.
When it was time to stop work and put the things away and the
girls had left one by one, April was the last to go. She helped Mrs.
4 mail coach — почтовая карета
3 passenger ['pæsɪnʤə] — пассажир
* typewriter — печатная машинка
4 to giggle — смеяться
4 druggist — аптекарь
* hat designer — модистка (мастерица по изготовлению шляп)
1 for the way you do your work — за то, как вы выполняете вашу работу
60

Cole put the things in the large box and was putting on her coat when
Mrs. Cole drew her close1 and said:
“April, dear, you are very good at planning things and clever
with your hands. There are many things you will be able to do when
you are grown. Be sure that you choose well. Then be sure you are so
well trained that you will be able to take your place in the world. You
may find you will have to go somewhere you don’t want to go. Per¬
haps by the time you are grown up you can go anywhere you want to
go.” Then she added slowly, “I hope so.” She looked very serious and
unsmiling.
April felt very sad, though she didn’t quite know why. Then she
asked, “You mean — you mean there are some places we can’t go?
You mean they might not let me be the head in a big store?”
Mrs, Cole didn’t speak but nodded her head slowly up and down,
looking deep into April’s eyes, which clouded over though no tears
fell.
April felt as if something had struck her. Something made her
remember the time when someone else was appointed1 2 * postmaster
instead of Papa. Maybe that was what Ken meant in his letter! She
didn’t say any more but ran out of the door and down the steps. She
passed several of the girls but didn’t notice when they spoke to her.
She passed Sophie as if she had never seen her; passed Tom, who stood
on a heap of snow8 throwing his drumsticks into the air and catching
them.
“April!” he called.
But she didn’t answer, only flew on up the street, through the gate,
up the steps, and into the house looking for Mamma. Papa was there
in the living room with the big book he was always reading, but April
wanted only her mother. She managed to keep down the sobs4 rising
in her throat, while she listened, hoping to hear a sound that would tell
where Mamma was. Then she heard the sound of the sewing machine
upstairs. .Mamma was there. She paid no attention to Papa’s question,
“Here! Here! What’s the matter?” but ran up the stairs and to the back
room where Mamma sewed. She was there and seemed to know already
that April needed her. She turned from the machine and looked at April.
April threw herself at her mother’s feet and broke into a storm of
1 drew her close — притянула ее к себе
2 to appoint — назначать
2 heap of snow — сугроб
4 She managed to keep down the sobs — Ей удалось сдержать рыдания
61

tears. Mamma tried to comfort1 her but could get no word from April,
who only turned her head from side to side and continued to sob as
if her heart was breaking.
Finally, when April had quieted a little, she said sadly, “So —
it’s come. Someone has hurt you. Who?”
April shook her head. She couldn’t say that Mrs. Cole had hurt her.
She loved Mrs. Cole. Besides, she hardly knew what had hurt her.
When she could speak she asked, “Mamma, is it true that there are
some places we can’t go?”
“Well,” Mamma began, “there are some people who think we are
different from them. They don’t understand what scientists have
taught us, that all the peoples of the world are one family and that all
human blood is the same. They forget that this country is for all
people to have an equal chance. Now, tell me, what has happened?”
April looked at Mamma, trying to say what really had happened.
She hardly knew, yet the feeling of deep hurt was still there. She began
to tell how they had talked at Brownie meeting of the things they
would do when they were grown up, and how April had said she want-
1 to comfort ['kʌmfət] — успокоить
62

ed to be a hat designer and the head of a shop and how one of the
girls laughed at her. Then she told Mamma what Mrs. Cole had said,
and the awful feeling she had inside.
“Why must we be different?” she sobbed. “I don’t feel different.”
“You aren’t different, really,” Mamma comforted, “except in the
way1 one flower differs from another. Come here to the window,”
she said. “Look out. I know it is beginning to get dark, but you re¬
member where the flower beds are. You know how the tulips1 2 and
hyacinths ['haɪəsmθ] come up in the spring. Remember how I always
try to find the dark purple3 hyacinths to set in among the lighter ones?”
April nodded, and Mamma went on:
“Today I saw the daffodils4 * * coming up where the snow melted
in the sun. It won’t be long till they bloom. After that come the tu¬
lips. Remember the dark browny ones w7e love so much and how lovely
they look among the bright ones? We really need those dark ones to
make the bouquet ['bukeɪ] rich and beautiful. You’re my dark April.
Dark April Bright! You’re a Brownie too! Isn’t that funny?” April
looked up, then giggled, while Mamma continued: “And you are going
to learn how to do what you want to do so well that you will find a
place for yourself wherever you want to go. And you must be so pleas¬
ant a person that you will make friends wherever you go.
“Come. Take off your dress and try this on.” April couldn’t help
being excited at the thought of a new dress. It would seem new even if
Mamma did say, “It is made from those two wool dresses that Auntie
gave me.” Oh, Mamma was a wonder at making things.3
She made things for Chris and sometimes for her friends. April
felt sorry for Tom because he was a boy and all that Mamma could
make for him were pajamas.
“Do you like it?” she asked now, for April’s smile showed how
pleased she was.
“Oh, it’s lovely,” sighed April.
The storm was over. Mamma hugged 8 her, and they went down
to get supper. Papa was at the foot of the stairs as they came down,
1 except in the way — зд. не больше чем
3 tulip — тюльпан
3 purple ['pəɪpl] — пурпурный
4 daffodil f'dæfədɪl] — нарцисс
6 Mamma was a wonder at making things — зд, у мамы были золотые руки
8 to hug — обнимать
ез

but he didn’t say anything, just touched April’s hair as she passed.
Tom beat the drumsticks along the railing of the porch1 and came
rattling in the door.
Exchanging ideas:
1.	Select the episodes in the story that supply the readers with the
information about injustice and racial discrimination in the US.
2.	Speak about the author’s views concerning racial discrimination:
how she makes her young readers realize that people of all colours
are equal.
3.	Speak about the ideological upbringing of American children.
4.	Skim through the story and select the episodes informing the read¬
ers about the ways of ideological upbringing in America.
*■ railing of the porch — перила крыльца
64

UNIT 5
Read the story Time in Thy Flight, that is about a time machine which
brings a girl and two boys from a future time to an Illinois [,ɪlɪ'nɔɪ[
town in 1928. As you read, imagine yourself going back in time with
them. Then answer the questions: Which strange things that the children
find are familiar to you? Would you like to have lived in this 1928
town?
TIME IN THY FLIGHT
(by Ray Bradbury)
A wind blew the long years away past their hot faces.
The Time Machine stopped.
“Nineteen hundred and twenty-eight,” said Janet. The two boys
looked past her.
Mr. Fields warned, “Remember, you’re here to observe the behav¬
ior of these ancient people. Be inquisitive,1 be intelligent, and
observe.”
“Yes,” said the girl and the two boys in crisp2 khaki ['kɑkɪ] uni¬
forms. They wore identical [aɪ'dentɪkəl] haircuts and had identical
wristwatches, sandals ['sændlz], and coloring of hair, eyes, teeth, and
skin, though they were not related.
“Shh!” said Mr. Fields.
They looked out at a little Illinois town in the spring of the year.
A cool mist3 lay on the early morning streets.
Far down the street a small boy came running in the last light of the
marble-cream moon. Somewhere a great clock struck 5:00 A. M. far
away. Leaving tennis-shoe prints softly in the quiet lawns, the boy
1 inquisitive [ɪn'kwɪzɪtrv] — любознательный
2 crisp — хрустящий
3 mist — туман
3 № 1932
65

stepped near the invisible1 Time Machine and cried up to a high, dark
house window.
The house window opened. Another boy crept down1 2 the roof to
the ground. The two boys ran off with banana-filled mouths into the
dark cold morning.
“Follow them,” whispered Mr. Fields. “Study their life patterns.
Quick!”
Janet and William and Robert ran on the cold pavements of spring,
visible now, through the town, through a park. All about, lights
flickered, doors clicked, and other children rushed alone or in pairs
down a hill to some shining blue tracks.3
1 invisible [ɪn'vɪzəbl] — невидимый
2 to creep down — сползать
8 track — рельсовый путь
66

“Here it comes!” the children shouted. Far down the shining tracks
a small light appeared and grew larger and larger.
“What is it?” screamed Janet.
“A train. You’ve seen pictures of them'” shouted Robert.
And as the Time Children watched, from the train stepped gigantic
[dʒaɪ'gæntɪkj gray elephants, lifting questionmark nozzles to the cold
morning sky. Lions roared in darkness.
“Why — this must be a — circus!” Janet trembled.
“Ybu think so? Whatever happened to them?”
Janet looked around. “Oh, it’s awful, isn’t it?”
The boys stood numbed.1 “It sure is.”
Men shouted. Horses clattered like a great fall of stones on the
pavement.
Mr. Fields was suddenly behind the children. “Disgusting,1 2 bar¬
baric [bɑ'bærɪk], keeping animals in cages. If I’d known this was here,
I’d never3 let you come see. It’s terrible.”
“Oh, yes.” But Janet’s eyes were puzzled. “And yet, you know...
I want to study it.”
“I don’t know,” said Robert, his eyes shining, his fingers trembling.
“It’s pretty crazy. We might try writing a thesis4 on it if Mr. Fields
says it’s all right...”
Air. Fields nodded. “I’m glad you’re finding motives,5 studying
this horror. All right, we’ll see the circus this afternoon."
The Time Machine hummed.6 7
“So that was a circus,” said Janet solemnly.’
The trombone [trɔm'boun] circus died in their ears. The last thing
they saw was candy-pink trapeze [trə'pi:z], people laughing while
baking-powder clowns8 laughed and jumped.
“All those nasty animal smells, the excitement,” Janet added.
“That’s bad for children, isn’t it? And those older people seated with
the children. Mothers, fathers, they called them. Oh, that was strange.”
Mr. Fields put some marks in his class grading book.
1 stood numbed [nʌmd] — стояли в оцепенении
3 disgusting — отвратительный
3 If I’d known.., I’d never...— Если бы я знал... я никогда бы не...
4 thesis ['θɪ:sɪs] — школьное сочинение
5 motive ['moutɪv] — мотив, основание
6 to hum — жужжать, гудеть
7 solemnly ['sɔləmlɪj — серьезно, торжественно
8 baking-powder clowns — зд. клоуны с напудренными лицами
3*
67

Janet shook her head numbly. “I want to see it all again. I’ve
missed the motives somewhere. I want to make that run across town
again in the early morning. The cold air on my face, the sidewalk
under my feet, the circus train coming in. Was it the air and the early
hour that made the children get up and run to see the train come in?
I want to see it all again. Why should they be excited? I feel I’ve
missed out on the answer.”
“They all smiled so much,” said W’illiam.
“What are summer vacations? I heard them talk about it.” Janet
looked at Mr. Fields.
“They spent their summers racing about like idiots ['ɪdɪətsl, beat¬
ing each other up,” replied Mr. Fields seriously.
The Time Machine stopped again.
“The Fourth of July,” announced Mr. Fields. “Nineteen hundred
and twenty-eight. An ancient holiday.”
They stood before the same house on the same street but on a
soft summer evening. Fire wheels hissed and on front porches laughing
children tossed things out that went bang!
“Don’t run!” cried Mr. Fields. “It's not war. Don’t be afraid!”
But Janet’s and Robert’s and William’s faces were pink, now blue,
now white with fountains of soft fire.
“We’re all right,” said Janet, standing very still.
“Happily,” announced Mr. Fields, “they prohibited fireworks1
a century ago—did away with the explosion.”1 2
Children did fairy dances, weaving their names on the dark sum¬
mer air with white sparklers.3
“I’d like to do that,” said Janet, softly. “Write my name on the
air. See? I’d like that.”
“What?” Mr. Fields hadn’t been listening.
“Nothing,” said Janet.
“Bang!” whispered William and Robert, standing under the soft
summer trees, in the shadow, watching, watching the red, white,
and green fires on the beautiful summer night lawns. Bang!
October.
The Time Machine paused for the last time, an hour later in the
month of burning leaves. People hurried into dark houses, carrying
1 to prohibit [prə'hɪbɪt] fireworks — запретить фейерверки
2 to do away with the explosion [ɪks'plotɪʒən] — запретить взрывы
3 sparkler ['spæklə] — бенгальский огонь
68

pumpkins. Skeletons ['skelitnzl danced, bats flew, candles flamed
and apples swung in empty doorways.
“Halloween,”1 said Mr. Fields. “The acme1 2 of horror. This was
the age of superstition.3 you know. Later they banned4 the Grimm
brothers, ghosts,5 skeletons, and all that claptrap.6 You children
were raised in a world of no shadows or ghosts. You had decent hol¬
idays like Work Day and AJachine Day.”
They walked by the same house in the empty October night,
looking in at the triangle ['traireggl]-eyed pumpkins and the masks
in black atticks and damp cellars.7 Now, inside the house, some
party children gathered telling stories and laughing!
“I want to be inside with them,” said Janet at last.
“What?” asked Mr. Fields.
“I just want to be inside. I just want to stay here. I want to see
it all and be here and never be anywhere else. I want firecrackers3
and pumpkins and circuses. I want Halloweens and Fourths, .like
we’ve seen.”
“This is getting out of hand,” 8 * Mr. Fields started to say.
But suddenly Janet was gone. “Robert, William, come on!” She
ran. The boys ran after her.
“Hold on!” 10 shouted Mr. Fields. “Robert! William, I’ve got you!”
He caught hold of the last boy, but the other ran away. “Janet, Ro¬
bert, come back here! You’ll never pass into the seventh grade! You’ll
fail, Janet, Bob — Bob!”
An October wind blew wildly down the street, carrying away the
children who soon disappeared among the trees,
William twisted and kicked. 11
“No, not you, too, William. You’re coming home with me. We’ll
teach those other two a lesson they won’t forget. So they want to
stay in the past, do they?” Mr. Fields shouted so everyone could hear,
1 Halloween ['hælou'ɪ:nj ■— американский детский праздник
2 acme ['ækmɪ] — высшая точка, кульминационный пункт
3 superstition [ ,sju:pə'stɪʃn] — предрассудок, суеверие
* to ban — запрещать
6 ghost [goust] — привидение, призрак
в claptrap ['klæptræp] — что-либо, рассчитанное на дешевый эффект
7 atticks and damp cellars — чердаки и сырые подвалы
3 firecracker — фейерверк
8 to get out of hand — выйти из-под контроля
10 Hold on! — Стойте!
И to twist and kick — извиваться и брыкаться
69

“All right, Janet, Bob, stay in this horror, in this chaos ['keɪɔs]l
In a few weeks you’ll come crying back here to me, But I’ll be gone!
I’m leaving you here in this world!”
He hurried William to the Time Machine. The boy was sobbing.
“Don’t make me come back here on any more Field Excursions ever
again, please, Mr. Fields, please —
“Shut up!”
Suddenly the Time Machine went away toward the future, toward
the underground cities, the metal buildings, the metal flowers, and
the metal lawns.
“Good-bye, Janet, Bob!”
A great cold October wind blew through the town like water,
And when it had stopped blowing, it had carried all the children
whether invited or uninvited, masked or unmasked — to the doors
of houses that closed upon them. There was not a running child any¬
where in the night. The wind hid away in the bare tree-tops.
And inside the big house, in the candlelight, someone was pouring
cold apple cider all around, to everyone, no matter who they were.
Exchanging ideas:
1.	What is the author’s viewpoint concerning the development of
civilization?
2.	Have you read any other science-fiction stories? What are they
about?
3.	What is the purpose of science fiction?

UNIT б
Read the legend Greyling and answer the question: What, things was
Greyling forbidden to do and why?
GREYLING
The fisherfolk1 who live in the Scottish islands of Shetland ['ʃet-
ɪənd] and Orkney ['ɔ:knɪ] tell many strange and beautiful tales of the
selchies,1 2 the seals who take on human form.
Once on a time a fisherman and his wife lived by the side of the
sea. All that they ate came out of the sea. Their hut was covered with
the finest mosses3 that kept them cool in the summer and warm in
the winter. And there was nothing they needed or wanted except a
child.
Each morning, when the moon slipped down behind the water
and the sun rose up behind the plains,4 the wife would say to the
fisherman, “You have your boat and your nets and your lines. But
I have no baby to hold in my arms.” And again, in the evening, it
was the same. She would weep and rock the cradle5 6 that stood by the
hearth.8 But year in and year out the cradle stayed empty.
Now the fisherman was also sad that they had no child. But he
kept his sorrow to himself so that his wife would not know his grief
1 fisherfolk ['fɪʃəfouk] — рыбаки
2 seichie ['stlhɪ] — тюлень, принимающий человеческий облик на суше
(сказочное существо)
3 moss — мох
4 plain [pleɪnj — равнина
? would weep and rock the cradle ['krerdl] — обычно плакала и качала колы-,
бель
6 by the hearth [heuθ] — у очага
71

and thus double1 her own. Indeed, he would leave the hut each morn¬
ing with a song and return each night with a whistle on his lips. His
nets were full but his heart was empty, yet he never told his wife.
One sunny day, the fisherman as usual set down to his boat. But
this day he found a small grey seal on the sand, crying for its own.1 2
The fisherman looked up the beach and down. He looked in front
of him and behind. And he looked to the town on the great grey cliffs3
that went down into the sea. But there were no other seals in sight.4 *
So he took off his shirt. Then he dipped6 it into the water and
wrapped8 the seal pup carefully.
“You have no father and you have no mother,” he said. “And
I have no child. So you shall come home with me.”
1 to double ['dʌbl] — удваивать
2 seal... crying for its own — тюлень... зовущий своих сородичей
3 cliff — утес
4 in sight — поблизости
6 to dip — окунать
8 to wrap — заворачивать
72

And the fisherman did no fishing that day but brought the seal
pup, wrapped in his shirt, straight home to his wife.
When she saw him coining home early with no shirt on, the
fisherman’s wife ran out of the hut. Then she looked wonderingly
at the bundle1 which he held in his arms.
“It is nothing,” he said, “but a seal pup I found on the beach.
I thought we could give it love and care until it is old enough to go
to the sea.”
The fisherman’s wife nodded and took the bundle. Then she un¬
covered the wrapping and gave a loud cry. “Nothing!” she said. “You
call this nothing?”
The fisherman looked. Instead of a seal lying in his shirt, there
was a strange child with great grey eyes and silvery grey hair,
smiling up at him.
The fisherman cried: “It isaselchie, I have heard of them. They are
men upon the land and seals in the sea. I thought it was but
a tale.”1 2
“Then he shall remain a man upon the land,” said the fisherman’s
wife, clutching the child in her arms, “for I shall never let him return
to the sea.”
“Never,” agreed the fisherman, for he knew how his wife had want¬
ed a child. And in his secret heart, he wanted one, too. Yet he felt,
somehow, it was wrong.
“We shall call him Greyling,” said the fisherman’s wife, "for
his eyes and hair are the colour of a storm-coming sky. Greyling,
though he has brought sunlight into our home.”
And though they still lived by the side of the water in a hut cov¬
ered with mosses that kept them warm in the winter and cool in,
the summer, the boy Greyling was never allowed in the sea.
He grew from a child to a lad.3 He grew from a lad to a young
man. He gathered driftwood4 for his mother’s hearth and searched
the tide pools5 6 for shells for her mantel,0 He mended his father’s
nets and tended7 his father’s boat. But though he often stood by
the shore or high in the town on the great grey cliffs, looking and
1 bundle — сверток
2 it was but a tale — это была только сказка
3 lad — юноша
4 driftwood — плавник, лес, прибитый к берегу
6 searched the tide pools — искал в лужах, образованных приливом
6 mantel ['mæntl] — каминная полка
7 to tend — заботиться
73

longing for1 what he did not really know, he never went into the sea.
Then one windy morning, just fifteen years from the day that
Greyling had been found, a great storm blew up suddenly in the
North. It was such a storm as had never been seen before; the sky
turned nearly black and even the fish had trouble swimming. The
wind pushed huge waves onto the shore. The waters reached the little
hut on the beach. And Greyling and the fisherman’s wife were forced2
to run away to the town high on the great grey cliffs. There they
looked down at the boiling sea. Far from shore they saw the fisherman’s
boat, its sails flapping like the wings of a wounded gull.® And cling¬
ing to the broken mast was the fisherman himself, sinking4 deeper
with every wave.
The fisherman’s wife gave a terrible cry. “Will no one save him?”
she called to the people of the town who had gathered on the edge
of the cliff. “Will no one save my own dear husband who is all of life
to me?”
But the townsmen looked away. There was no man there who
dared risk his life in that sea, even to save a drowning soul.5
“Will no one at al! save him?" she cried out again.
“Let the boy go,” said one old man, pointing at Greyling with
his stick. “He looks strong enough."
But the fisherman’s wife held Greyling in her arms and closed his
ears with her hands. She did not want him to go into the sea. She was
afraid he would never return.
“Will no one save my own dear heart?” cried the fisherman’s
wife for a third and last time.
But shaking their heads, the people of the town went to their
houses and shut their doors and locked their windows and set their
backs to the ocean and their faces to the fire that was in every hearth.
“I will save him, Mother.” cried Greyling, “or die as I try.”
Before she could tell him to stop, he broke from her grasp and
dived from the top of the great cliffs, down, down, down into the
stormy sea.
“He will surely sink,” whispered the women as they ran from their
warm fires to watch.
1 to long for — стремиться к
3 to be forced — быть вынужденным
3 flapping like the wings of a wounded gull —бились, как крылья раненой
чайки
4 to sink — погружаться
5 drowning soul — тонущий человек
74

“He will certainly drown,” called the men as they took down their
spyglasses1 from the shelves.
They gathered on the cliffs and watched the boy dive down into
the sea.
As Greyling disappeared beneath the waves, little fingers of
foam8 tore at his clothes. They took off his shirt, his trousers and.
his shoes and sent them away to the shore. And as Greyling went
deeper beneath the waves, even his skin .seemed to move away till
he swam, free at last, in the grey coat of a great grey seal.
The seichie had returned to the sea.
But the people of the town did not see this. All they saw was
the diving boy disappearing under the waves and then, farther out,
a large seal swimming towards the boat in the sea. The grey seal,
with no effort at all, brought the fisherman to the shore, though the
waves were wild and bright with foam. And then, with a final salute,
it turned its back on the land and headed joyously out to sea.
The fisherman’s wife hurried down to the sand. And behind her
followed the people of the town. They searched up the beach and
down, but they did not find the boy.
“A brave son,” said the men when they found his shirt, for they
thought he was certainly drowned.
“A very brave son,” said the women when they found his shoes,
for they thought him lost for sure.
“Has he really gone?” asked the fisherman’s wife of her husband
when at last they were alone.
“Yes, quite gone,” the fisherman said to her. “Gone where his
heart calls, gone to the great wide sea. And though my heart grieves3
at his leaving, it tells me this way is best.”
The fisherman’s wife sighed. And then she cried. But at last she
agreed that, perhaps, it was best. “For he is both man and seal,”
she said. “And though we cared for him for a while, now he must
care for himself.” And she never cried again.
So once more they lived alone by the side of the sea in a new little
hut which was covered with mosses to keep them warm in the winter
and cool in the summer.
Yet, once a year, a great grey seal is seen at night near the fish¬
erman’s home. And the people in town talk of it, and wonder. But
1	spyglass — подзорная труба
3	foam — пена
5	to grieve —■ оплакивать
75

seals do come to the shore and men do go to the sea; and so the town¬
folk do not talk of it very long.
But it is no ordinary1 seal. It is Greyling himself come home —
come to tell his parents tales of the lands that lie far beyond the
waters, and to sing them songs of the wonders that lie far beneath
the sea.
Exchanging ideas:
Do you remember any beautiful Russian tales and legends?
* * *
Read the story Halloween Night and answer the question: What things
did Katie John plan for the party?
HALLOWEEN NIGHT
(from Honestly, Katie John by Mary Calhoun)
Mary Phillips asked, “Are you going to have a Halloween party
again this year?”
“Well sure ■—why not?” Katie John said. “If my mother lets
me, I guess
“Hey, Sally!” The fat girl ran off down the school hallway.
“Katie John’s going to have another Halloween party!”
“If my mother lets me!” Katie called after her.
The idea worked and developed in Katie’s mind during the school
day. A Halloween party. Yes, it should be fun.
On the way home from school, Katie John and Sue were full of
chatter about the idea. There could be fortunetelling and popcorn
balls, and a tubful of apples in water, and hide-and-seek in the dark
rooms of Katie’s house.
Mother agreed to the party. “I’ll help,” Katie promised. “I’ll
help with everything. You won’t have to do hardly a thing!”
Then the girls rushed off to Katie’s room to make invitations.
On the outside of folded heavy paper they coloured orange jack-o’-
lanterns. 1 2 On the inside they printed:
1 ordinary — обыкновенный
2 jack-o’-iantern ['ʤækəjæntən] — фонарь из тыквы с отверстиями, проре¬
занными для глаз, рта и носа
76

The witches summon1 you
When: the scariest night of the year
Where: Katie John Witch house
What time: The witching hour (7:30 p.m.)
Why: For fearful, frightening fun
Sue made an invitation for herself as a souvenir. Katie John fin¬
ished the invitations she’d been working on and counted all they’d
made. Yes, there were enough for all the girls in their room,
“Twelve,” she said. “Twelve guests.”
“No, thirteen,” Sue said. “There’ll be thirteen of us. You didn’t
make an invitation for yourself.”
Thirteen! Thirteen at a Halloween party!
“Oh no-o,” Katie John groaned. “Something awful will happen!”
“Last year we had the same number and everything went all
right,” Sue tried to comfort her.
Katie John was not sure. Every time she set out to do something
interesting, every time she had a good idea, something went wrong!
Well, this party was not going to have any mistakes! This party is
going to be one time when nothing goes wrong!
Next, the girls planned their costumes. Sue said she’d wear her
witch’s costume from last year. Katie John decided to be a fortune¬
teller, for Sue insisted Katie should be the one to tell the fortunes.
It was time for Sue to go home for supper, and the girls parted,
agreeing to distribute the party invitations at school tomorrow.
Katie John was dissatisfied with the idea of dressing as a for¬
tuneteller, however. This year she’d wanted to be something really
horrible for Halloween. At the supper table she asked Dad.
“I don’t know whether to be a fortuneteller or not. That’s not
very horrible. What’s the most horrible thing you can think of, Dad?”
Mother spoke thoughtfully. “You know, I think the most hor¬
rible thing would be a black ghost. White ghosts are common, but
imagine seeing a black ghost in the fog, floating over the white field
at night, Brrr.” Katie looked at her mother. She supposed all Mother
thought about was making dresses, dinners and suppers, yet here
she’d come up with a piece of imagination that was truly wonder¬
ful.2 A black ghost! Katie John shivered.
1	to summon — вызывать
2	she’d come up with a piece of imagination that was truly wonderful — ока¬
залось, что у нее хорошее воображение
77

She must be a black ghost at the party. Still, what about the
fortunetelling? Katie John was doubtful. But the idea of being a
black ghost was too dramatic to resist.1 She’d simply tell fortunes
as a ghost. After all, it wasn’t everybody who had her fortune told
by a black ghost.
“That’s what I want to be,” Katie John decided. “Mother, will
you help me with the costume?”
As they did the supper dishes, she and Mother planned, and Ka¬
tie John felt closer to her mother than she had in a long time.
“I’ll be completely black,” Katie John said.
The next day before school Katie and Sue passed out1 2 the party
invitations. All the girls seemed eager for the party and free to come
to it.
After school, Katie John and Sue went to Katie’s room to plan
the fortunetelling. Fortunes for all the girls would be written out on
folded slips of paper, numbered, and put in a bowl. With the bowl
on a small table before her, Katie John was to sit under the green¬
glass lamp in the dining room. First Katie would read the palm of
her “client’s” hand. Then she would have the girl pick a card2 from
the deck. The number on the card would be the number of her fortune.
Katie John sharpened pencils, and she and Sue set themselves
to the fascinating business of figuring out fortunes.
“They should be something really different,” Katie said. “For¬
tunes about dark men and journeys over water are too common. And
1 was too dramatic to resist — была слишком захватывающей, чтобы от нее
отказаться
2 to pass out — раздавать
2 would have the girl pick a card —- заставит девочку вытянуть карту
78

they shouldn’t be something that the girls can prove won’t come
true by the very next day. Like, don’t say ‘Tomorrow you will find
a dollar’.”
“You will be chased by a dog, but you will get away,” Katie John
wrote. After all, it could happen sometime in a girl’s life. She wasn’t
saying when.
“You will receive a present smaller and better than you ever ex¬
pected,” Sue continued. Some of the girls might get wristwatches
for Christmas.
Katie wanted to write something really out of the world. Oh,
heavens. She sat up straight. That was an amazing idea!
“You will marry a man from another planet,” she said. “How is
that for a fortune!”
Sue looked half frightened. “What a fortune!” She shivered.
“I hope I won’t get it!”
Mow the girls had a lot of ideas. “Your tomcat will turn out to
be a girl and have kittens.” “You will grow up to be a raving beauty.”
“A witch will be watching you when you go home tonight, but you
won’t be able to see her.” “You will rescue a squirrel with a wounded
paw and make a pet of him.” “Trouble lies in your future unless you
smile every day before breakfast.” “You will perform on television
and be a tremendous success.” “A very strange visitor will come to
your house. Beware!”
The girls finished writing the fortunes, folded the slips of paper,
and put them in Katie’s dresser drawer for safekeeping.
Katie John continued the party planning in the week that re¬
mained before Halloween. Of course Sue helped, but Katie John would
be the hostess, and the responsibility that nothing go wrong was on
her shoulders. Careful planning right down to the last detail was
the key,1 she decided. She’d think it all through, every difficulty.
She planned exactly where the tubful of apples in water would be
placed, so that no one would come running down the stairs in the
dark and fall into it. She thought out the sequence of events for the
party. There shouldn’t be any dull spots of aimless milling around.1 2
When everybody had arrived and admired one another’s costumes,
she’d start the fortunetelling. While each girl was having her for¬
1 Careful planning right down to the last detail was the key — Самое важ¬
ное — продумать все до мельчайших деталей
2 There shouldn’t be any dull spots of aimless milling around.— Гости не дол¬
жны скучать и слоняться без дела.
79

tune told, the rest, in two teams, could be passing an apple along
under their chins. And if masks or costumes made apple passing hard,
so much the more fun.
Next they’ll all go down to the cellar and bob for apples.1 But
everyone couldn’t bob for apples at once. What could the others be
doing? Something in another room of the basement — aha! — spa¬
ghetti worms! Sue could supervise the apple bobbing while Katie sat
in the cellar with a big bowlful2 of cold cooked spaghetti. The girls
could come in one at a time, and she’d say, “This is a test of your
courage,” and she’d push the girl’s hand into the cold spaghetti.
“This is a bowlful of worms,” she’d say, “and the one who eats the most
gets a prize!” There ought to be plenty of screams out of that.3 Then
she’d tell the girl that it was really spaghetti and make her promise
not to tell the others who hadn’t been in.
When aiɪ that was over, they’d play hide-and-seek in the base¬
ment with the lights out — that should be lots of fun — and they’d
go upstairs for refreshments. With her mother, Katie John planned
the party food: popcorn balls, cookies, little pumpkin tarts (Moth¬
er’s idea), and orange punch.4 Katie was almost afraid to help with
the preparation of the food for fear she’d do something awful but
Mother promised to check her on every step, working right alongside.
As to the other Halloween details, Mother and Dad agreed to
answer the door to hand out cookies to the trick-or-treaters,5 so that
Katie John would be free to run her party. Dad agreed to carve the
big pumpkins for the front porch and a few small ones for dark cor¬
ners of the cellar.
Exchanging ideas:
1.	If you were Katie’s friend helping her to figure out fortunes, what
fortunes would you make up?
2,	Is Katie an interesting person to make friends with? Why?
3,	Are your friends amusing and interesting people, people with
character, people with ideas?
1	to bob for apples — пытаться достать яблоко ртом из сосуда с водой (дет¬
ская игра )
2	bowlful ['boulful] — полная миска
3	There ought to beplenty of screams out of that.— Это должно вызвать большой
шум и визг.
4	orange punch — апельсиновый напиток
8	trick-or-treaters — дети, которые во время праздника обходят соседей,
чтобы получить угощение
80

UNIT 7
Read the story Ta-Na-E-Ka ['tɑ'nɑ/ækɑ:] and answer the questions:
Were the children eager to go through Ta-Na-E-Ka? Why? How did
Mary’s appearance contrast with Roger’s after their Ta-Na-E-Ka
experience?
TA-NA-E-KA
(after Mary Whitebird)
As my birthday came closer, I had awful nightmares1 about it.
’ I was reaching the age at which all Kaw [kɔ:] Indians had to parti¬
cipate in Ta-Na-E-Ka. Well, not all Kaws. Many of the younger
families on the reservation1 2 were beginning to give up the old cus¬
tom. But my grandfather Amos Deer Leg liked the tradition. He still
wore handmade moccasins ['mɔkəsɪnz] instead of shoes, and kept his
iron-gray hair in tight braids.3 He could speak English, but he spoke
it only with white men. With his family he used a Sioux [su:] dialect.
Grandfather was one of the last living Indians (he died in 1953
when he was 81) who fought against the US Cavalry.4 Not only did
he fight, he was wounded in the war. At that time my grandfather
was only 11 years old.
Eleven is a magic word among the Kaws. It was the time of Ta-Na-
E-Ka, the “flowering adulthood”.5 It was the age, my grandfather
1 nightmare — кошмар
3 reservation — резервация (meppumopu я для насильственного поселения
коренного населения)
3 braid — коса
4 cavalry ['kævəlrɪ] — кавалерия
6 adulthood ['ædʌlthud] —зрелость
81

told me hundreds of times, when a boy could prove himself to be a
warrior1 and a girl took the first steps to womanhood.
“I don’t want to be a warrior,” my cousin, Roger Deer Leg, told
me. “I’m going to become an accountant.”2
“None of the other tribes make girls go through the test,” I com-,,
plained to my mother.
“It won’t be as bad as you think, Mary,” my mother said. “Once
you’ve gone through the test, you’ll certainly never forget it. You’ll
be proud.”
I even complained to my teacher, Mrs. Richardson, feeling that,
as a white woman, she would support me.
She didn’t. “All of us have rituals ['rɪtjuəlz] of one kind or an¬
other,” Mrs. Richardson said. “Don’t look down on the customs of your
people.”
Customs, indeed? I had no wish to live on a reservation for the
rest of my life. I was a good student. I loved school. I had never
thought that being an Indian was exciting.
But I’ve always thought that the Kaws were the originators of
the women’s liberation movement. Mo other Indian tribe — and
I’ve spent half my lifetime learning the subject — treated women
more equally than the Kaws. The Kaw allowed men and women to
eat together. A Kaw woman had the right to choose a husband to her
liking even if her father was against the marriage.
The Kaw had legends about “Good Woman”, a kind of Joan of
Arc3 who led the Kaw warriors into battle after battle which they
always won.
And girls as well as boys had to undergo Ta-Na-E-Ka. The cere¬
mony ['serɪməm] was a bit different in different tribes, but since
the Indian’s life was dedicated to survival,4 Ta-Na-E-Ka was a test
of survival.
“To survive, we must endure,”5 my grandfather explained. “When
I was a boy, Ta-Na-E-Ka was more than a symbol ['sɪmbəl] it is
now. We were painted white and were sent naked® into the woods.
1 warrior ['wɔrɪə] — воин
2	accountant [ə'kauntənt] — бухгалтер
3	Joan [ʤoun] of Arc — Жанна д’Арк (1412—1431', народная героиня Фран¬
ции, возглавила борьбу французского народа против английских захватчи¬
ков)
4	dedicated to survival — посвящена выживанию
6	to endure — переносить трудности
£ naked ['neɪkɪd] —голый
82

We couldn’t return until the white had gone off. It took almost 18
days, and during that time we had to stay alive looking for food,
eating insects and berries. It was an exciting time.”
“What happened if you couldn’t make it?” Roger asked. He was
born only after three days I was, and we were being trained for Ta-
Na-E-Ka together. I was happy to know he was frightened too.
“Many didn’t return,” Grandfather said. “Only the strongest
and cleverest. Mothers were not allowed to weep over1 those who
didn’t return. If a Kaw couldn’t survive, he or she wasn’t worth
weeping over. It was our way.”
1 to weep over — оплакивать
83

“What a lot of nonsense,” Roger whispered. “I’d give anything
to get out of it.”
“I don’t see how we have any choice,” I answered. Roger tried
to comfort me. “Well, it’s only five days.” Five days! Maybe it was
better than being painted white and sent out naked for '18 days. But
not much better. We were to be sent, barefoot and in bathing suits,
into the woods. Even our very traditional parents were against it
when Grandfather told us to go naked. For five days we’d have to
live in the woods,1 keeping warm as best we could, getting food where
we could. It was May, but the days and the nights were still cold.
Grandfather was in charge of the month’s training for Ta-Na-E-Ka.
One day he caught a grasshopper and demonstrated how to pull its
legs and wings off and how to swallow1 2 3 it.
I felt sick and Roger turned green. “It’s a good thing it’s 1947,”
I told Roger. “You’d make8 a terrible warrior.” Roger just grimaced.
I knew one thing. I wasn’t going to swallow a grasshopper no
matter how hungry I was. And then I had an idea. Why hadn’t I
thought of it before?
I went straight to my teacher’s house. “Mrs. Richardson,” I said,
“would you lend me five dollars?”
“Five dollars!” she exclaimed. “What for?”
“You remember the ceremony I talked about?”
“Ta-Na-E-Ka. Of course. Your parents have written me and asked
me to excuse you from school so you can participate in it.”
“Well, I need some things for the ceremony,” I answered in a half
truth. “I don’t want to ask my parents for the money.”
“It’s not a crime to borrow money, Mary. But how can you pay
it back?”
“I’ll baby-sit for you 10 times.”
“That’s more than fair,” she said, handing me a new five-dollar
bill. I had never had that much money at once.
A few days later, the ritual began with a long speech from my
grandfather about how we had reached the age of Ta-Na-E-Ka. All
the friends and relatives who had gathered at our house for dinner
made jokes about their own Ta-Na-E-Ka experience. They all advised
us to eat much now, since for the next five days we’d be very hungry.
1 we’d have to live in the woods — мы должны 4были жить в лесу
2 to swallow — глотать
3 You’d make...— Из тебя бы вышел...
84

“I’ll probably laugh about this when I’m an accountant,” Roger said,
trembling,
“Are you trembling?” I asked.
“What do you think?”
“I’m happy to know boys tremble too,” I said.
At six the next morning we kissed our parents and went off to the
woods. “Which side do you want?” Roger asked. According to the
rules, Roger and I weren’t to communicate during the whole test.
“I’ll go up the river, if it’s OK with you,”1 I said.
“Sure,” Roger answered. “What difference does it make?”
To me it made a lot of difference. There was a place a few miles
up the river and there I had seen a boat. I thought a boat, was a better
place to sleep in than under a pile of leaves.
“Why do you keep your head straight up?” Roger asked.
“Oh, nothing. Just nervous,” I told him. Actually, I was afraid
I’d lose the five-dollar bill, which I had put into my hair. As we
came to the bank of the river, Roger shook my hand. “Good luck,
Mary.”
“N’ko-n’ta,” I said. It was the Kaw word for courage.
The sun was shining and it was warm, but my bare feet began
to hurt immediately. I found one of the berry bushes Grandfather
had told us about. “You’re lucky,” he had said. “The berries are ripe1 2 3
in the spring, and they are delicious3 and nourishing.”4 They were
orange and fat and I popped one into my mouth.
Argh! I spat it out.5 It was awful and bitter, and even grasshop¬
pers were probably better-tasting, although I wasn’t going to find
out.
I sat dowm to rest my feet. A rabbit hopped out from under the
berry bush. He smelled the berry I had spat out and ate it. He
picked another one and ate that too. He liked them. He looked at me.
All of a sudden I realized I was no longer frightened. Ta-Na-E-Ka
might be more fun than I had thought. I got up and went up the
river.
“Not one boat,” I said to myself. But the restaurant on the shore,
“Ernie’s Riverside”, was open. I walked in, feeling silly in my bath¬
1 if it’s OK with you — зд. если ты не против
2 ripe — зрелый
9 delicious [dɪ'iɪʃəs] — очень вкусный
4 nourishing ['nʌrɪʃɪŋ] — питательный
6 I spat it out.— Я выплюнула ее (ягоду).
85

ing suit. The man at the counter1 was big and kind-looking. He
asked me what I wanted.
"A hamburger and a milk shake,”2 I said, holding the five-dollar
bill in my hand so he knew I had money.
“That’s a pretty heavy breakfast, honey,”3 he said.
“That’s what I always have for breakfast,” I lied.4
“Forty-five cents,” he said, bringing me the food. (Back in 1947,
hamburgers were 25 cents and milk shakes were 20 cents.) “Deli¬
cious,” I thought. “Better than grasshoppers — and Grandfather never
once mentioned that I couldn’t eat hamburgers.”
While I was eating I had a bright idea. Why not sleep in the
restaurant? I went to the ladies’ room and made sure the windows
were unlocked. Then I went back outside and played along the river
bank, watching the water birds.
The restaurant closed at sunset, and I saw the owner drive away.
Then I climbed in the unlocked window. There was a night-light on,
so I didn’t turn on any lights. But there was a radio on the counter.
I turned it on to a music program. It was warm in the restaurant,
and I was hungry. I helped myself to a glass of milk and a piece of
pie, wishing to keep a list of what I had eaten so I could leave
money. I also planned to get up early, slip out through the window,
and go to the woods before the man returned. I turned off the radio,
wrapped myself in6 the man’s apron, and, in spite of the hardness of
the floor, fell asleep.
“What are you doing here, kid?”
It was the man’s voice.
It was morning. I had overslept. I was scared.
“That’s OK, kid. I just wanna know6 what you’re doing here.
You lost? You must be from the reservation. Your folks must be
worried about you. Do they have a phone?”
“Yes, yes,” I answered, “But don’t call them.”
I was shivering. The man, who told me his name was Ernie, made
me a cup of hot chocolate while I explained about Ta-Na-E-Ka.
“The most stupid thing I ever heard,” he said, when I was through.
x counter — стойка
2	milk shake — молочный коктейль
3	honey — разг, дорогая, голубушка
4	to Не — лгать
6	to wrap oneself in...— завернуться в...
® I just wanna know = I just want to know
86

“Lived next to the reservation all my life and this is the first time
I’ve heard of Ta-Na-whatever-you-call-it.” He looked at me. “Pretty
silly thing to do to a kid,” he muttered,1
That was just what I had been thinking for months, but when
Ernie said it, I became angry. “No, it isn’t silly. It’s a custom of
the Kaw. We’ve been doing it for hundreds of years. My mother and
my grandmother and everybody in my family went through this
ceremony. It’s why the Kaw are great warriors.”
“OK, great warrior,” Ernie grinned. “And if you want to live
here, it’s OK with me.” Ernie went to the neighbouring room and
brought me a sweater. “To keep you warm,” he said.
The sweater was too big for me, but it felt good. And I’d found
a new friend. Most important, I was surviving Ta-Na-E-Ka.
My grandfather had said the experience would be filled with
adventure, and I was having it. And, Grandfather has never said
we couldn’t accept hospitality.1 2
I stayed with Ernie for the whole period. In the mornings I went
into the woods and watched the animals and picked flowers for each
of the tables in “Ernie’s Riverside”. I had never felt better. I was
up early in the morning to watch the sun rise on the Missouri [mi'zu-
ərɪ], and I went to bed after it set. I ate everything I wanted — in¬
sisting that Ernie take all my money for food. “I’ll keep this in
trust for you,3 Mary,” Ernie promised, “in case you are needing five
dollars.”
I was sorry when the five days were over. I’d enjoyed every min¬
ute with Ernie. He taught me how to make western omelets ['ɔmlɪt]
and to make coffee. And I told Ernie all about the legends of the
Kaw. I hadn’t realized I knew so much about my people.
But Ta-Na-E-Ka was over, and as I approached4 my house, at
about 9.30 in the evening, I became nervous ail over again. What
if Grandfather asked me about the berries and the grasshoppers? And
my feet were not hurt. I hadn’t lost a pound5 and my hair was
combed.
“They’ll be so happy to see me,” I told myself hopefully, “that
they won’t ask too many questions.”
1 to mutter — бормотать
2 to accept hospitality — пользоваться гостеприимством
3 I’ll keep this in trust for you — Я буду отпускать тебе в кредит
1 to approach — приближаться
5 I hadn’t lost a pound — я не похудела ни на фунт (фунт = 456,6 г)
87

ɪ opened the door. My grandfather was in the front room. He
was wearing the ceremonial deerskin shirt which had belonged to
his grandfather.
“N’g’da’ma,” he said. “Welcome back.”
I hugged my parents warmly, then I saw my cousin Roger lying
on the sofa. His eyes were red. He had lost weight.1 His feet were
a mass of blood and blisters,8 and he was moaning.9 “I made it, see,
I made it. I’m a warrior. A warrior.”
My grandfather looked at me strangely. I was clean, well-fed,
and healthy. My uncle and aunt looked at me with hostility.1 * * 4
Finally my grandfather asked, “What did you eat to keep you
so well?”
I caught my breath and told the truth: “Hamburgers and milk
shakes.”
“Hamburgers!” my grandfather cried.
‘Milk shakes!” Roger moaned.
“You didn’t say we had to eat grasshoppers,” I said shyly.
“Tell us all about your Ta-Na-E-Ka,” my grandfather commanded.
I told them everything, from borrowing the five dollars, to Er¬
nie’s kindness.
“That’s not what I trained you for,” my grandfather said sadly.
I stood up. “Grandfather, I learned that Ta-Na-E-Ka is impor¬
tant. I didn’t think so during training. I was scared of it. I had it
my way.5 6 * And I learned I had nothing to be afraid of. There is no
reason in 1947 to eat grasshoppers when you can eat a hamburger.”
I was shocked at my own audacity.0 But I liked it. “Grandfather,
I’ll bet you never ate one of those rotten berries yourself.”
Grandfather laughed! He laughed aloud! My mother and father
and uncle were surprised. Grandfather never laughed. Never.
“Those berries — they are terrible,” Grandfather said. “I could
never swallow them. I found a dead deer on the first day of my Ta-
Na-E-Ka —- and he kept my stomach full for the whole period of the
test!”
1 to iose weight — похудеть
8 a mass of blood and blisters — все в ссадинах и волдырях
8 to moan [moun] — стонать
4 hostility [hɔs'tɪlɪtɪ]—враждебность
5 I had it my way.— Я прошла его (испытание) по-своему.
6 I was shocked at my own audacity [ɔ:'dæsɪtɪ].— Я была потрясена своей сме¬
лостью.
88

Grandfather stopped laughing. “We should send you out again,”*
he said.
I looked at Roger. “You’re pretty smart, Mary,” Roger moaned.
“I had never thought of what you did.”
“Accountants just have to be good at arithmetic,” I said comfort¬
ably. “I’m terrible at arithmetic.”
Roger tried to smile, but couldn’t. My grandfather called me to
him. “You should have done what your cousin did. But I think that
you are more alert to what is happening to our people today1 2 than
we are. I think you would have passed the test under any circum.
stances,3 in any time. Somehow you know how to exist in a world
that wasn’t made for Indians. I don’t think you’re going to have
any trouble surviving.”
Grandfather was right. But I’ll tell about that another time.
Exchanging ideas:
1.	Is it important to be able to endure?
2.	Where are your sympathies, with Mary or Roger?
3.	Remember the difficult situation you found yourself in and the
way you solved it.
i
1 We should send you out again — Мы должны послать тебя снова
2 more alert to what is happening to our people today — лучше приспособлена
к современным условиям
3 you would have passed the test under any circumstances — ты бы выдержала
испытание в любых условиях
89

UNIT 8
Read the story The Secret of the Black Box and answer the questions:
What made the boy sure that he was richer than anyone he knew?
When did the boy understand the true value of the box?
THE SECRET OF THE BLACK BOX
(after Kenneth Robb)
The first years of my life were spent in small settlements along
the sandy Sabine River in east Texas. My father was a preacher,1
and every few years we moved from one village to another.
We lived in parsonages.1 2 We never owned a home. In this and
some other ways we were different from the other members of the
community. In the place we lived when I was in my third year of
school, my best friend was Roy Jenkins, and we often walked home
from school together. One day, as we neared Roy’s house, he pointed
toward it.
“My grandfather built that house 70 years ago,” he said. “And
when I grow up and get married, my father says I’m to have it.”
I stared through the fence at the tall, old-fashioned house. How
wonderful, I thought for a moment, to be the owner of a house like
that! What could I possibly say that would equal Roy’s words?
Then I remembered something. “Well, I don’t care,” I said, “my
family has a black box!”
And suddenly I knew, thinking of the black box my mother kept
locked inside the china closet,3 that I really didn’t care. There had
1 preacher — проповедник
2 parsonage ['peusnɪʤ]—дом приходского священника
Sehina ['ʧaɪnə] closet—буфет
90

been at least one rich family in every town where we had lived. Now
I knew that I had never envied any of them. Though the true mean¬
ing of the black box would not be known to me for years, I felt I
was richer than anyone I knew.
I ran all the way home that afternoon, went to the china closet
and stood staring at the black box. It was no bigger than a shoe box,
but there was something special about it, something precious which
for some reason I believed was mine alone.,
Just when the box came so important to me, I do not really know,
I simply know that the box is among my earliest memories.
I was the youngest of seven children. I remember winter eve¬
nings when I played on the kitchen floor while my mother washed
the supper dishes with the help of Mary and Elizabeth.
“Now, girls,” my mother said to them one evening, “if the house
should catch fire in the night, save the black box. Your father and I
will take care of the children. Break the glass in the china closet and
take out the box. Everything else can burn. But get that box!”
After Mary and Elizabeth went away to college, I heard the same
instructions given to Ben, later still to Kate, who was next in age to
Ben. Something of my mother’s concern, something about the se¬
riousness of her voice remained with me.
Once when my father and mother and the girls were not at home,
Wilson and Jim talked about what was in the box. Wiison said it
probably held money — perhaps hundred-dollar bills,
“It’s not just money,” said Jim. “I believe it holds jewels, too.
Mother lived near the Oklahoma Indians when she was a little girl.
Maybe she got diamonds and rubies from them.”
Ben, who by that time was a senior in high school, said there was
nothing in the box but a lot of junk. He claimed he had seen my
mother open the box one night.
It worried me to hear Ben say such things. But Ben said he would
prove it. He took a small knife from the kitchen and tried to open
the door of the china closet. I suddenly had the feeling that Ben was
evil.1 Wilson sprang upon him.
Jim and I also attacked him. The three of us knocked Ben to the
floor. We fought for several minutes. Mother came in and sent us
to bed, not asking what had happened.
ɪ Ben was evil — Бен совершал дурной поступок
91

Often the box seemed to possess mysterious powers. The only
time I ever saw my father cry was after he had spoken in church about
political matters, and several church members had signed a petition
asking him to leave town or stop discussing political affairs in church.
The whole family gathered around my father as he held his head
and kept saying he had failed in his duty as a preacher. Kate put her
hand on my father’s shoulder and said, “Anyway, Daddy, we still
have the black box.”
Aly father seemed to think that was very funny. He sat up and
laughed and put his hand on Kate’s head. Then the rest of us began
to laugh, and we all felt better.
It wasn’t till all the other children except Jim had married or
gone away to college that I found out what was in the box. I asked
Mother one night to let me see inside it.
She laughed quietly; apparently1 she thought this request was
funny. Then she rose and unlocked the china-closet door and un¬
locked the black box, too. She emptied its contents on the dining¬
room table.1 2 *
I shall never forget how disappointed I was. The box held noth¬
ing but papers. Suddenly my hands began to tremble; what I saw
made me ill. I said, “It’s trash! Trash! Nothing but trash!”
But Mother didn’t even notice that I had said anything. Her
strong hands moved rapidly through the papers. She seemed to rec¬
ognize them by touch. From the bottom she drew out a large thick
paper and held it up. My eyes were cloudy in my anger, and the words
on the paper seemed unclear. Then I heard my mother’s voice saying:
“This is our marriage license.5 It was just 30 years ago next Oc¬
tober...”
Quickly she folded the paper and I could see her trembling as
she returned it to its place. Next came several sheets of various
sizes and colours, tied with a string around them. “Here’s evidence
of our real treasure,” she said: “the birth certificates.”
I only half listened as my mother mentioned the other papers:
the ownership papers for our car, a letter from the teachers’ college
praising my sister Mary and records concerning the schools we had
attended.
Seventeen years have passed since that night. I have seen my
1 apparently [ə'pærəntlɪ] — очевидно
2 emptied its contents on the... table — выложила содержимое на... стол
8 license — свидетельство
92

brothers and sisters marry and their families grow large. Before
Mother died, I saw papers, pictures and keepsakes1 added to the box
until it would hold no more.
As the years flew by, that emptiness I felt at first changed to an
understanding of the box’s true value. It contained the real records
of our family and showed how we had stayed together in the face of
death and the difficulties of wartime. It contained the story of long
years of family living, family working and family growing.
When I married, it seemed the most natural thing in the world
to buy at once a small black tin box.
Recently, as my wife and I came downstairs, we noticed our
three-year-old son standing before the fireplace in the living room.
He was staring silently at the black box on the mantel. For an in¬
stant a vision appeared to me: a view of six other homes, the homes
of my brothers and sisters, with a black box displayed in some part
of each house. It was a vision of two dozen children, my mother’s
grandchildren, some older than our son and some still too young to
walk, each wondering from time to time about the contents of a small
black box.
I
I

1 keepsake — подарок на память
93

What interests our son about the box is that it is secret. But
later he will come to know that the secret held in this box is the
secret of himself- of how he came to be, of the girl he will marry, of
the children he will have, of the manner in which he will pass on
his heritage1 from the past. For in its records of the past he will see
the way for the future, and I believe he already knows, in some small
way, that this is true.
Exchanging ideas:
1. What are the most valuable things in your family?
2. Is money the most valuable thing? What things are of more value
and why?
ɪ heritage — наследство
94

UNIT 9
Read the text My Work as Lenin’s Librarian and answer the questions'.
What kind of literature did Vladimir Ilyich keep around in his study?
What kind of assignments did the librarian do to help Lenin with
his work?
MY WORK AS LENIN’S LIBRARIAN
These reminiscences are by Shushanik Manucharyants (1889-
1972), who was Lenin’s librarian between 1920 and 1924; she was
Senior Researcher at the Marx — Engels — Lenin Institute under
the CPSU Central Committee from 1930- to 1955.
I was very nervous as I was going to my first meeting with Vla¬
dimir Ilyich Lenin at four o’clock on .March 14, 1920. Waclaw Wo-
rowsky, who had given me a reference,1 warned me several times
during the day, “Make sure that you are not late. Vladimir Ilyich is
very punctual ['pʌŋktjuəl] himself and expects others to be punc¬
tual.”
Vladimir Ilyich received me in the assembly hall at the Council
of People’s Commissars. He greeted me and asked- “Are you the li¬
brarian?”
“Yes.”
“Take a seat. Are you a specialist?”
“Well, I haven’t attended librarians’ courses but I know some¬
thing about books.”
1 to give somebody a reference — дать кому-либо рекомендацию
95

“Would you be able to get me the necessary literature and keep
track of1 new publications?”
“I think I would,” I replied. “Anyway I’ll try my best.”
Vladimir Ilyich then invited me to see his library and to get
down to work.
When I first entered Lenin’s study I was struck by its simple
furnishings2 and the relatively small number of books. I had expect¬
ed that the library of the Chairman of the Council of People’s Com¬
missars would contain thousands of volumes. That was not the case.
Later I understood that Vladimir Ilyich kept around only the books
he directly needed for work and reference, without cluttering up his
library,3 and preferred to have other books sent to public libraries
where they could be used by hundreds of people.
The following day Lenin asked me not to move any books from
their habitual places as he was used to that arrangement. I asked
for his permission at least to separate fiction4 from political writ¬
ings.
“That you may do,” said Vladimir Ilyich. Still, he asked me not
to touch books in the revolving bookcase 6 which stood to the right
of his desk.
Having sorted out the fiction, I was afraid to touch other books.
One day, when Vladimir Ilyich came to the room to work, I told
him: “Vladimir Ilyich, there is nothing for me to do.”
He looked up from his papers, smiled and said: “Well, go home
then and have a rest.”
I said, “I am not talking about now, but in general, because you
don’t allow me to touch the books.”
“All right, you can do what you like with the books so long as
you don’t touch the revolving case.”
Sometimes he asked me to sort out the books in that case, too,
and get some reference literature.
The revolving bookcase which Vladimir Ilyich guarded so care¬
fully contained the following materials: dictionaries, minutes® and
other documents of congresses of the Party, all kinds of statistical
*■ to keep track of — быть в курсе
® furnishings — меблировка
3	without cluttering up his library — чтобы не приводить в беспорядок книги
4 fiction — художественная литература
6	revolving bookcase — вращающаяся этажерка для книг
8	minutes — протокол
96

handbooks, in short, everything Vladimir Ilyich might need at any
moment.
The first note of instruction I received from Vladimir Ilyich was
as follows:
“To the librarian:
“See if you can
1) collect all the publications of every People’s Commissariat in
a separate file or on separate shelves;
2) do the same for all the publications of the Central Committee
of the Russian Communist Party and the local Party committees."
Vladimir Ilyich also had in his study collections of classical
literature, encyclopaedic dictionaries, foreign literature, booklets
by Marx, Engels and Lenin, and other material. A special stand
was set aside for current newspapers which were bound1 in months
and were also kept in his study.
One of my earlier assignments was to get booklets by Marx, En¬
gels, and himself and for convenience’s sake3 to have them all bound
together. So we had bound the Communist Manifesto by Marx and
Engels, of which Vladimir Ilyich believed the best translation had
been done by Plekhanov (Geneva publications) and P. Orlovsky,
and also booklets written by Lenin in 1905-1917. I offered to get
Vladimir Ilyich the Unpublished Articles of Marx and Engels (1852,
1853, 1854), and War and Revolution (issue 1). He approved and
then made additions to his article Bibliography of Marxism, a supple¬
ment to his article on Marx.
Lenin paid a great deal of attention to publishing the letters of
Atarx and Engels. .
On one occasion he asked for Marx’s letters to Kugelmann with
a preface written by himself.
Despite the heavy demands on his time, Vladimir Ilyich made
a point of looking through all the numerous publications he re¬
ceived — not only those that came out in Russia but also a lot of foreign
literature, magazines, and newspapers in Russian and other languages.
Vladimir Ilyich looked through books not only in his free time
but also at meetings. Usually in the 5-7 minutes before the start of
the meeting he would ask me: “What’s new?” Having looked through
the new publications he would take some along with him to the meet-
1 to bind (bound, bound) — переплетать, брошюровать
3 for convenience’s sake — для удобства
4 № 1832
97

ing and after it was over would return the books with notes instruct¬
ing me to keep them in his study or in the library.
Vladimir Ilyich was very fond of dictionaries and he had many
of them around. Once I offered to get a new encyclopaedic diction¬
ary. Vladimir Ilyich, who was leafing through a book, asked meɪ
“Are you sure such a publication exists?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Well, see if you can get it.”
Here are two more notes I received from him-
“Please try to find me a Bulgarian-Russian dictionary.”
“To the librarian.
“Please get me the I talian-Russian dictionary by De Bubo, Odessa,
1894, and have it bound.”
In a few days the Italian-Russian dictionary was bound and put
on the revolving bookcase. When I told Vladimir Ilyich about it he
smiled and said, “You’ve done it? So soon? Merci. It’s a pity I haven’t
the time to read in Italian.”
Vladimir Ilyich usually gave his instructions to me personally
or, if I happened to be out, wrote me notes.
When I ordered to get a collection of works by Chernyshevsky
for Vladimir Ilyich and had it bound he agreed and also asked me
to have his collection of Herzen’s works bound. He would often get
angry at the careless way booklets were put together (“You bent it
and it falls apart”) and he was not happy about their design and
selection of materials; but he was very glad and made a point of com¬
menting when well-published books came along.
Vladimir Ilyich asked me to collect and arrange in complete
sets such magazines as Ezhenedelnik Pravdy, Vlast Sovetov, Volya
Truda and others. Such requests he usually wrote on magazine covers,
for example, “Get a complete set for my library”, or “Get a complete
set”, “Bind”, “Put current issues in a file”.1
Sometimes Vladimir Ilyich would ask for some book, newspapers
or a magazine one of his friends told him about.
...I was very upset when for some reason it was impossible to get
a book requested by Vladimir Ilyich on time, as sometimes happened.
Once a comrade brought Vladimir Ilyich two magazines, Economist
and Nauaya Rossia (New Russia). Vladimir Ilyich showed them to
me when I entered the meeting hall and saidɪ
ɪ in a iile — в стопку
98

“I haven’t received these.”
I was very embarrassed.
“I am sorry. It’s an omission on my part.”1
Vladimir Ilyich replied:
“It’s not your fault, it’s the fault of those who are supposed to
send me literature on time.”
Vladimir Ilyich often asked me to keep track of books he was
taking home with him and see to it that they were brought back to
his study. If any of the comrades asked Vladimir Ilyich to lend him
a book, he referred them to me saying: “Aly librarian is very strict.”
And if he lent a book to anyone he asked them to leave a note for me.
Looking through the journal of criticism and bibliography, Rus-
skaya Rniga published in Berlin, Vladimir Ilyich often made notes
on covers requesting for some foreign publication. We ordered some
books about India for Lenin.
Once Vladimir Ilyich asked for two books, one of which was Na-
zhivin’s reminiscences of Tolstoy. I sent in a request and received
an answer that they didn’t have such a book, but had Tolstoy’s diary.
Vladimir Ilyich wrote to me:
“Comrade Alanucharyants!
Could you check up? I don’t need Tolstoy’s diary, I need Nazhl-
vin's reminiscences of Tolstoy published in German by Tolstoi's Denk-
wiirdigkeiten.
5.12. Lenin.”
Another revolving bookcase, which stood on the left-hand side
of his writing desk, held all the literature on the questions on which
Vladimir Ilyich was working at a particular moment: on electrifi¬
cation, on the discussion about trade-unions, etc.
Vladimir Ilyich carefully prepared his speeches, selecting mate¬
rials and quotations. One had to see to it that he had all the neces¬
sary literature handy. Scanning a book he could immediately tell
whether there was anything in it for him or not.
On May 17, 1922, I received this note from Vladimir Ilyich;
“Please get me from the Socialist Academy the books marked in
blue pencil on the list attached.
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)
1 an omission on my part — моя оплошность
4*
99

And, ii available, a list of books on that question. Lenin.”
Vladimir Ilyich apparently planned to write a work on the scien¬
tific organization of labour. At this request books on the subject
were selected from his library and a list of books available at the
library was drawn up. Besides, he asked that the Labour Institute
be contacted for a list of books on the same question. Vladimir Ilyich
asked that the books from the Socialist Academy be left in his study.
After giving me these instructions he left for Gorki and told me
to use the telephone in his office to keep him posted on what was
being done. Shortly afterwards, however, Vladimir Ilyich fell ill
and did not return to Moscow until the autumn (October 2, 1922).
By that time I had all the literature ready in the library which was
next to his flat. Upon return from Gorki, Vladimir Ilyich twice
went to the library, looked through the books and asked me to keep
them. But he did not manage to write this work.
In late 1922, seeing that Lenin’s library was growing tremen¬
dously, I suggested that he dispose of some sections. Vladimir
Ilyich agreed and asked me to talk to Nadezhda Konstantinovna and
Maria Ilyinichna to find out what they wanted to be kept in the
library.
Vladimir Ilyich was very warm towards everyone around him.
He was very attentive and considerate to rank-and-file workers.1
It was a delight to work for him.
Exchanging ideas:
1. How did Lenin’s personality impress the people who knew him?
2. How did education and knowledge of foreign languages help Lenin
to deal with the problems Soviet Russia was facing?
1 rank-and-file workers —• рядовые работники

TEST REASiNG I
Read the story A Birthday Gift and answer the questions: Why didn’t
anyone want a blond puppy? Why did Tom give the puppy the name
of Prince?
A BIRTHDAY GIFT
(from Champion Dog Prince Tom by Jean Fritz and Tom Clute)
Black Cindy lay in the corner on her blanket and looked proudly
at her eight little cocker spaniels. Seven of the puppies were black,
as black as Black Cindy herself, as black as their father, and so
healthy and strong that any mother would be proud of them. But the
eighth puppy wasn’t like that at all. He was thin and, because he
was a different colour, anyone could see right away that he was the
smallest of them. He was a blond cocker.
When Mr. Buell Andrus, Black Cindy’s owner, found the pup¬
pies, he smiled.
“Good girl, Cindy,” he said. “They look just as nice as they always
do. Except for the little blond.”
Black Cindy shook her tail back and forth and began licking the
puppies to show what a good mother she was.
After that, everyone who saw Black Cindy’s puppies said the
same thing. “Nice little black cockers,” they said. “Too bad about
the blond one."
Perhaps that was what gave the little blond puppy the idea right
from the beginning that he was different. As he grew older, he
romped1 around with his brothers and sisters but, perhaps because he
1 to romp — возиться, шумно играть
101

knew he was different, he ran a little faster and jumped a little high¬
er, and played a little harder than the others. But no one noticed
that. All anyone noticed was that the little blond puppy was too
small.
As soon as the puppies were old enough to leave Black Cindy,
Mr. Andrus called up the newspaper in Adrian, Michigan, where he
lived. He asked the newspaper to run an advertisement of cocker
spaniels for sale.1 People who were looking for a pet began going
out to Mr. Andrus’ house to look at the puppies.
The puppies were inside a wire pen1 2 now in the back yard. When¬
ever anyone came to see them, they would run around the fence3
and bark their little puppy barks. The blond puppy barked the loud¬
est and ran the fastest but no one paid any attention. “What nice
black puppies,” everyone said. Then Mr. Andrus would bring the
black puppies out of the pen so that people could see each one more
closely. He showed the people what long ears the black puppies had
and what fine coats of fur.
One by one the black puppies were sold until all that were left
in the pen were one black puppy and, of course, the blond one that
was too small and too thin for anyone to want.
“We’ll never get rid of that blond,” Mr. Andrus thought one day
as he gave the two puppies their food in the pen. “Think I’ll run anoth¬
er advertisement in the Adrian paper and see if we can’t get him
off our hands over the weekend.”
The next day Mr. Andrus’ advertisement appeared in the paper.
FOR SALE. Cocker Spaniel puppies. Buell Andrus, Church Street,
Fairfield
Not many people noticed the advertisement. It was in small
print4 in the back of the paper, and it came out on a very hot day
in August. Most people were too hot to read small print about cocker
spaniel puppies. Many of the people in Adrian weren’t even home
in the afternoon when the paper boy delivered the paper. They had
gone swimming or they were away on vacation.5
1 to run an advertisement of cocker spaniels for sale — поместить в газету
объявление о продаже коккер-спаниелей
2 wire реп — место, огороженное проволокой
8 they would run around the fence — они обычно бегали вдоль загородки
4 in small print — мелким шрифтом
* vacation — отпуск
102

When the paper boy came to the little gray house in Dennis
Street, he found Tom Clute sitting on his porch.
“Toss it here, son,” Tom called to the boy. He caught the paper
and, as the boy went on to the next house, Tom opened the paper and
began to read. He planned to read only the front page because he had
some errands1 to do before supper. Tom was a jukebox owner2 in
Adrian. His work often took him out in the late afternoon and eve¬
ning. Tom read the headlines on the front page and the weather report
in the upper right-hand corner and then, instead of putting the paper
down as he had meant to do, he turned the page. He read that page
and the next page and he kept on reading until he came to the last
page. He even read the advertisements. “For Sale,” he read, “Cocker
Spaniel puppies...”
Tom let the paper fall to the floor and he looked dreamily out
into Dennis Street. “That’s what I’d like,” he thought. “A dog.” He
imagined how it would be if he had one of those cocker spaniels now.
He could take the little cocker along to work with him. He would
whistle and the dog would jump into the car, and between stops at
the restaurants where his jukeboxes were, he would talk to the dog.
He might even teach him some tricks. Then later when Tom came
home, the dog would be company for him. Of course, his mother was
visiting him, but usually he lived alone. A dog would certainly be
good company. He was a grown man, he thought, and he was still
thinking about dogs the same way he had when he was a boy. He’d
only had one dog then, a funny little brown dog he had called Prince,
and how he had loved him! He remembered how he used to think that
some day Prince was going to become famous like Rin Tin Tin. Maybe
he would save someone from drowning, Tom had thought, or pull
someone out of a burning building.
Of course nothing like that, had happened. Only in the movies
and in the dreams of boys do things like that happen, and Tom
smiled to remember his own dreams. It was time to go to work.
First he went into the house to say good-bye to his mother. He
found her in the kitchen, cutting up apples for a pie. Tom reached
over and stole a piece of sliced apple and leaned against the kitchen
doorway while he ate it.
* errand — поручение
2 jukebox ['ʤu:kbəks] owner— владелец автоматических проигрывателей a
ресторанах
103

“Say, Mom/' he said. “Remember that littie brown dog I had when
1 was a kid?”
Tom’s mother looked up from the apple pie. “I certainly do re¬
member Prince. Whatever made you think of him?”
Tom shrugged.1 “I don’t know, Something I saw in the paper,
I guess. An advertisement of cocker spaniels for sale.”
After Tom had gone to work, his mother went on with her pie.
“A dog might be nice for Tom,” she thought. “Tomorrow would be
Tom’s birthday. A dog might be just the thing. Some friends were
planning a surprise party here at his house. Maybe they would like
to know about that advertisement in the paper.” Tom’s mother cut
a half-moon in the middle of her pie, and put it in the oven. Then she
went to the telephone.
The next day Tom worked all day, and it was a lucky thing that
he did. He didn’t go near Dennis Street, so he didn’t see his mother
making a big birthday cake. He didn’t go near Fairfield where Buell
Andrus lived, so he didn’t see his friend Ann standing in the back
yard looking into a wire pen.
“I want a puppy to give as a birthday present,” Ann said.
.Mr. Andrus went into the pen and brought out the black puppy.
He pulled the puppy’s ears down to his nose to show how long they
were. Then he set him down on the ground. The little black puppy
looked carefully around him at the strangeness outside his pen. He
took a step forward, then he looked around again.
“He’s a nice-looking dog,” Mr. Andrus said. “Big for his age, too.
You can have him for fifty dollars.”
Inside the wire pen the little blond puppy was racing around
and around. He poked his nose8 through the wire fence; he stood on
his hind legs1 2 * and he barked, although the sound wasn’t exactly a
bark. He made a funny little up-and-down noise in his throat that
sounded as if he were trying to talk and as if he had a great deal to
say.
Ann looked over at the little blond cocker and laughed. “Why
don’t you bring him out?” she said. “You want to see the little blond?”
Mr. Andrus asked. “You don’t know much about dogs, do you?”
But he went over to the pen and let the blond dog out.
1 to shrug — пожимать плечами
2 to poke one’s nose — высовывать свой нос
2 hind legs — задние ноги
104

The blond dog didn’t stand around carefully for even one minute.
He put his nose to the ground where there were all sorts of exciting
smells waiting for him. He followed the smells and he followed his
nose as fast as he could go, exploring the new world of the back yard.
Then he came back to Ann and he talked to her. Up and down in his
throat he told her all about the smells and all about himself
and maybe, if anyone had been able to understand him, he even told
about some of the wonderful plans he had for himself when he
grew up.
Ann smiled. “I think I’d like to take the little blond,” she said.
She paid for the blond puppy and Mr. Andrus put him in a travelling
box. Then Ann put the box in her car and went back to Dennis Street
to wait for the party to begin.
At six o’clock everything was ready. The table was set for the
party. The guests were gathered in the dining room, waiting for Tom,
and in Tom’s chair was a great, long box tied up in white paper with
an enormous1 ribbon.
The little blond puppy sat inside his dark box and he kept very
quiet. He could hear all kinds of new noises and smell all kinds of
new smells, and through his little hole he saw many things he had
never seen before. Suddenly there was a tremendous1 2 noise of voices,
as loud as if all the dogs in the world had started to bark.
“Surprise! Surprise!” the voices said. “Happy birthday! Open it,
Tom! Go ahead and open it!”
The blond puppy rushed out of his box and onto Tom’s lap.3 He
put his front paws4 on Tom’s chest 5 and licked his face.
All the time that Tom and his guests were at dinner and later
when they were in the living room, the little blond puppy rushed
around the house, into every corner he could find. But between
jumps he came to Tom and he talked to him, up and down in his
throat.
“He looks pretty thin,” Tom’s mother said.
“Rather small for a cocker, isn’t he?” one of the guests asked.
1 enormous — огромный
2 tremendous — вд. страшный
8 lap — колени
4 paw — лапа
6 chest — грудь
105

Tom reached down and lifted the little blond puppy onto his lap.
He looked at the puppy’s eager brown eyes.
“He looks great to me,” Tom said. “He looks perfect.”
“Well, I expect we can fatten him up,” Tom’s mother said. “I
hope so. What are you going to call him, Tom?”
“I think I’ll call him Prince,” Tom said.
Exchanging ideas:
1.	What makes you think that Tom is a nice and kind boy?
2.	Do you think Prince will grow into a clever dog?
3.	Why do we call animals “our younger brothers”? Do they need
special care?

TEST READING II
Read the story Runaway Alice and answer the questions: Where did Miss
Cannon take Alice? What kind of family was Alice taken from?
RUNAWAY ALICE
(after Frances Salomon Murphy)
The office at the State Home and School was quiet and pleasant.
It was a sunny room with plants on the window sills1 and on the
desk. The only sound Alice heard was the rustling1 2 3 of papers as Miss
Cannon looked through her folder. She looked up and smiled at Alice,
who sat on a straight chair, looking down at her new black shoes.
Alice also wore a new blue cotton2 dress with a white collar and new
white socks. Beside her chair was a cardboard box and in the box
were two cotton dresses, two pairs of socks, two nightgowns, a sweat¬
er, a pair of rubbers, a comb, and a toothbrush, all new. Every girl
placed in a foster home4 from the State Home and School carried
with her the same clothing in an identical cardboard box.
“Well, Alice,” the young woman said, “I’m going in to see Dr.
Wagner now. I’ll be with you very shortly and we’ll go to your new
foster home.”
Alice Wright lifted her gray eyes and looked at Miss Cannon but
she did not say a word. She was about twelve years old, a thin child
with straight, light brown hair which was cut just below her ears.
Alice did not answer Miss Cannon. She did not answer because
1 window sili — подоконник
2 to rustle ['rʌsl] — шуршать
3 cotton — хлопок
4 foster home — дом приемных родителей
107

she could not. She was trying hard to be calm. She was determined
not to show how she really felt. She would not let anyone see that she
was terrified,1 that the words “foster home” alarmed her. She began
to study her new shoes again, and Miss Cannon went into Dr. Wag¬
ner’s office.
In the office, Dr. Wagner sat studying some papers. He was a
middle-aged man with kind brown eyes and a worried expression on
his thin face.
“Miss Cannon,” he said, “I am not at all sure that Alice Wright
ought to be placed just at this time. She is an intelligent girl; she is
quiet and obedient? and we have no trouble with her — if we keep
our eyes on her. But you know what her trouble is — she runs away.
She comes back quietly when we go for her, but it is a very bad thing
for a child her age to run away. No telling what might happen to her.”* 2 3
“You say she always runs to the same place,” began Miss Cannon.
“Yes, here’s the address. Mrs. John Baker, 210 Blackwell Street.
It’s in a miserable section of the city,4 the second floor of a shabby5
old house. Alice was placed there by her father for six years after
the death of her mother, so it’s the only home she remembers. Still
it is hard to understand why she goes back there. Mrs. Baker makes
it clear that she doesn’t want her. She has five children of her own,
is a nervous, overworked woman who screams at them most of the
lime. Her house is dirty and the children aren’t kept too clean. Mrs.
Baker calls us as soon as Alice arrives and demands that we take her ,
back immediately. Of course, we go there as soon as she is reported
missing.” 6
“Perhaps,” said Miss Cannon, “she’s had too much family, life
with the Bakers. She may think that all families are like that.”
“Then why does she go back there?” asked Dr. Wagner.
Miss Cannon gathered up her papers. She stood up.
“It may be that she’s looking for a real home without knowing
it. I hope I have the right one for her. Good-bye, Doctor.”
As the door to the office opened and Miss Cannon came out,
J to be terrified — быть напуганным
2 obedient [ə'bɪɪdjənt] — послушный
3 No telling what might happen to her.— sð. Кто знает, что может с ней слу¬
читься.
* miserable section of the city —• район (города), где живет беднота
6 shabby — убогий, жалкий
“ as soon as she is reported missing — как только сообщат, что она пропала
108

Alice’s thin shoulders straightened1 even more and she drew her two
new shoes back under her chair. She heard a clear voice saying, “Shall
we be going,1 2 Alice?” When she looked up she saw again the young
woman with blue eyes and light hair, and a smile that was even more
warm and friendly. Alice picked up her box and followed without a
backward glance.3
Only when they were in the car Miss Cannon spoke again. “I’li
tell you about your new home as we drive there. It’s in the city but
in a different part of the city from Mrs. Baker’s. There are three
people in the family, Mr. and Mrs. Jordan and their daughter, Mari¬
lyn, who is ten years old. The Jordans want someone to be a friend
to their child. They are nice people.”
Alice spoke for the first time. “How do you know?”
Miss Cannon gave her a quick glance and then answered, “I don’t
absolutely know, Alice, but I have every reason to believe4 it’s a
good home. You see, before we use a home, we get the names of six
people as references. One has to be a clergyman, one a doctor, and
four are friends of the family. If any one of these six people doesn’t
approve of the home, then we don’t use it. Of course, I visit the home
myself. I go through the house and I talk to the foster mother. If I
don’t like the home, then I don’t use it.”
“Oh,” said Alice, but she still felt uneasy.2
“You must not think,” went on Miss Cannon, “that I am just
leaving you in this home. You’ll see a great deal of me. I shall visit
you often at home and I shall see you at school, too. I’ll take you
to the dentist and to the doctor’s every so often. And Alice, I want
you always to tell me if you’re not happy. You are my chief interest,
not the Jordans. I want you to be happy.”
“Am I going to a regular school?” asked Alice.
“Yes, you are. There is just one thing I wish you would promise.
Please don’t go to Mrs. Baker’s.”
Alice set her mouth stubbornly and said nothing.
“Why do you go there?” Miss Cannon asked her. “Do you like Mrs.
Baker so much?”
1 to straighten ['streɪtn] — выпрямиться
8 Shall we be going — Пойдем
8 without a backward glance — не оглянувшись
4 ɪ have every reason to believe — у меня есть все основания верить
6 to feel uneasy — зд, испытывать беспокойство
109

“I don’t like her at all,” Alice replied, “and she doesn’t like me.
She says I am too much work1 because I like to comb my hair and
wear clean dresses.”
“Then why do you go there?” Miss Cannon persisted.1 2
“I don’t know,” Alice said helplessly. “I don’t have anywhere
else to go.”
The car stopped before a small house, painted white with green
blinds. There was a low fence around the neat little yard and there
were flowers planted in a flower-bed in the centre of the yard. Alice
and Miss Cannon were met at the door by a girl with red curls, freck¬
les, and blue eyes. She was chubby but she was pretty. Mrs. Jordan
was plump too, and like her daughter she was pretty. Her eyes and
hair were brown and she wore a very nice house dress.
“Come in, Miss Cannon,” said Mrs. Jordan. “So this is Alice. You
wouldn't think she was two years older than Marilyn, would you,
they are so near the same height. Let me take your box, dear. Don’t
you want to see your room? It’s Marilyn’s room, too.”
The bedroom the two girls were to share was papered with a rose¬
bud paper3 and had furniture painted apple green. There were twin
beds, a chair, a bureau, and a dressing-table with a mirror. The clos¬
et door stood half open and Alice saw that half the closet was packed
tightly with Marilyn’s dresses and coats on hangers. The other half
was left empty for Alice’s three dresses and her sweater.
Marilyn showed Alice her dolls and her other toys.
“Don’t you have even one doll?” she asked in amazement.4 * 6 *
“No,” said Alice fiercely, “I hate dolls. I never play with them.”
Alice had put out her hand toward the dolls before Marilyn spoke,
but now she drew back her hand.
“Oh,” said Marilyn, “I was going to let you have this one,”2 and
she pointed to a doll with brown curls and blue eyes.
For a moment Alice wavered.8 She wanted the doll, she wanted
to dress it and undress it, to make clothes for it, to tie a ribbon on
its hair, but she held firm.’
1 1 am too much work — я доставляю слишком много хлопот (из-за меня
много работы)
2 to persist [pə'sɪst] — настаивать, зд. настойчиво спрашивать
3 rosebud paper — обои с рисунком, представляющим собой бутоны роз
4 in amazement — в изумлении
6 I was going to let you have this one — я собиралась дать тебе эту (куклу)
6 to waver ['weɪva] — колебаться
3 to hold firm —- держаться стойко
ilɑ

“I wouldn't want it,” she said.
“Oh,” said Marilyn again.
Suddenly a smile came over Alice’s face, a smile that sweetened
her whole expression.
“I love to play hopscotch,”1 she said. “If you’ll play hopscotch
with me, I’ll play dolls with you sometimes.”
“All right,” Marilyn was eager to please. “Do you want to play
hopscotch now?”
“No,” said Alice. “I’ll play dolls with you first. This one will be
mine.” And she reached for* 2 the doll with the brown curls and the
blue eyes.
Exchanging ideas:
1.	What made Alice nervous when she was speaking to Miss Cannon?
2.	Why did Alice run to .Mrs. John Baker’s?
3.	Will Alice be happy in her new family?
* to play hopscotch — играть в классы
2 to reach, lor something — протянуть руку к чему-либо

SUPPLEMENTARY READING
Read part / of the story Peter Pan and answer the questions: Were Wendy,
John and Michael born to a happy family? Who took care of the chil¬
dren? Had Airs Darling ever heard about Peter Pan?
PETER PAN
(after James Matthew Barrie)
Part I
All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they
will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she
was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she picked up
another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she looked
rather delightful, for Mrs Darling put her hand to her heart and cried,
“Oh, why can’t you remain like thisɪ for ever!” This was all that
passed between them on the subject, but since that time Wendy knew
that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is
the beginning of the end.
Wendy’s mother was a lovely lady, with a romantic mind and
such a sweet mouth. The way Mr Darling won her was this: the many
gentlemen who had been boys when she was a girl discovered that
they loved her, and they all ran to her house to propose1 to her ex¬
cept Mr Darling, who took a cab and arrived first, and so he married
her.
Mr Darling used to boast to Wendy that her mother not only loved
him but respected him. He was one of those who know about stocks
1 to propose — делать предложение
112

and shares.1 Of course no one really knows, but he quite seemed to
know, and he often said stocks were up and shares were down in a
way that would make any woman respect him.
Wendy was born first, then John, then Michael.
For a week or two after Wendy was born it was doubtful whether
they would be able to keep her, as she was another mouth to feed.
Mr Darling was very proud of her, but he was very honourable, and
he sat on the edge of Mrs Darling’s bed, holding her hand and cal¬
culating expenses,1 2 while she looked at him imploringly.3 She want¬
ed to risk it, but that was not his way; his way was with a pencil
and a piece of paper, and if she confused him with suggestions he had
to begin at the beginning again.
“Now don’t interrupt,” he would ask her. “I have one pound sev¬
enteen here, and two and six at the office; I can cut off my coffee at
the office. Can we try it for a year on nine nine seven?”
“Of course we can, George,” she cried.
There was the same excitement over John, and Michael, but
both were kept, and soon you could see the three of them going to
Miss Fulsom’s Kindergarten school, accompanied by their nurse.
Mrs Darling loved, to have everything just so, and Mr Darling
had a passion for being exactly like his neighbours; so, of course,
they had a nurse. As they were poor, owing to the amount4 * of milk
the children drank, this nurse was a Newfoundland dog, called Nana,
who had belonged to no one in particular8 until the Darlings took her.
She had always thought children important, and the Darlings had
become acquainted with her in Kensington Gardens, where she spent
most of her spare time looking into perambulators,6 and was much
hated by careless nurses, whom she followed to their homes and com¬
plained to their mistresses.7 She was quite a treasure of a nurse.
How careful she was at bath-time; and up at any moment of the night
if one of the children made the slightest cry. Of course her kennel8
was in the nursery. She had a genius for knowing when a cough is a
thing to have no patience with and when it needs stocking round
1 stocks and shares — акции и вклады
2 to calculate expenses — подсчитывать расходы
3 imploringly — с мольбой
4 amount — количество
6 to no one in particular — зд. никому
“ perambulator [pə'rænibjiɪleɪtə] — детская коляска
7 mistress — хозяйка
8 kennel — конура
5 № 1932
113

your throat.1 She believed to her last day in old-fashioned remedies
like rhubarb leaf,1 2 and so on. One should see her accompanying the
children to school, walking by their side when they were well behaved,
and putting them back into line if they strayed.3 On John’s footer
days4 she never once forgot his sweater, and she usually carried an
umbrella in her mouth in case of rain. There is a room in Miss Ful-
sorn’s school where the nurses wait. They sat in chairs, while Nana
lay on the floor, but that was the only difference. They tried to ig¬
nore her; she despised their light talk.
No nursery could be done more correctly, and Mr Darling knew
it, yet he sometimes wondered uneasily if the neighbours talked.
He had his position in the city to consider.5 6
Nana also troubled him in another way. He had sometimes a feel¬
ing that she did not admire him. “I know she admires you greatly,
George,” Mrs Darling would assure him, and then she would sign to
the children to be specially nice to father. Lovely dances followed,
in which the only servant, Liza, was sometimes allowed to join. The
gaiety of those dances! And gayest of all was Mrs Darling. There
never was a simpler, happier family until the coming of Peter Pan.
Mrs Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her
children’s minds. It is the nightly custom of every good mother af¬
ter her children are asleep to rummage" in their minds and put things
straight for next morning. If you could keep awake (but of course
you can’t) you would see your own mother doing this, and you
would find it very interesting to watch her. It is quite like tidying up
drawers.7 When you wake in the morning, the naughtiness and bad
feelings with which you went to bed have been folded up and placed
at the bottom of your mind; and on the top, beautifully aired, are
spread out your prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on.
I don’t know whether you have ever seen a map of a person’s
mind? Doctors sometimes draw maps of other parts of you, and your
own map can become extremely interesting, but imagine them try-
1 stocking round your throat — завязать горло чем-то теплым (шерстяным}
2 old-fashioned remedies like rhubarb ['ru:bæb] leaf — старомодные лекарства,
например ревень
3 to stray — сбиваться с пути
4 On John’s footer days — В дни, когда у Джона были спортивные занятия
6 Не had his position... to consider, — Он должен был думать о своем поло¬
жении в обществе.
6 to rummage — рыться
’ drawer [drɔ:] — ящик комода
114

ing to draw a map of a child’s mind, which keeps going round all the
time. There are zigzag lines on it, just like your temperature on a
card, and these are probably roads in the island, with astonishing
splashes of colour1 here and there, and coral reefs and gnomes [noum]
and caves through which a river runs, and princess with six elder
brothers, and one very small lady with a hooked1 2 nose. It would be
an easy map if that were all; but there is also first day at school,
the round pond, needlework, chocolate-pudding day, threepence
for pulling out your tooth yourself, and so on.
Occasionally, in her travels through her children’s minds Mrs
Darling found things she could not understand, and of these quite
the strangest was the word Peter. She knew of no Peter, and yet he
was here and there in John and Michael’s minds, while Wendy’s
was scrawled all over with him.3 The name stood out in bigger let¬
ters than any of the other words, and Mrs Darling felt that it had a
cocky4 5 appearance.
“Yes, he is rather cocky,” Wendy said with regret. Her mother
had been questioning her.
“But who is he, my pet?”
“He is Peter Pan, you know, mother.”
At first Mrs Darling did not know, but after thinking back into
her childhood she just remembered a Peter Pan who was said to live
with fairies. There were odd stories about him. She had believed in
him at the time, but now that she was married and had three children
she quite doubted whether there was any such person.
“Besides,” she said to Wendy, “he would be grown up by this time.”
“Oh no, he isn’t grown up,” Wendy assured confidently, “and he
is just my size.” She meant that he was her size in both mind and
body; she didn’t know how she knew it, she just knew it.
Mrs Darling consulted Mr Darling, but he only smiled. “Mark my
words,” he said, “it is some nonsense Nana has been putting into
their heads; just the sort of idea a dog would have. Leave it alone,
and it will blow over.”
But it didn’t blow over; and soon the troublesome boy gave Mrs
Darling quite a shock.6
1 astonishing splashes of colour — удивительные краски
2 hooked — крючкообразный
3 (Wendy’s mind) was scrawled all over with him — его имя было написано
повсюду неразборчивым почерком (в уме Венди)
4 соску — дерзкий
5 gave Mrs Darling quite a shock — поразил миссис Дарлинг
5*	115

Some leaves of a tree bad been found on the nursery floor, which
certainly were not there when the children went to bed, and Mrs
Darling was puzzling over them when Wendy said with a charming
smile:
“I do believe it is that Peter again!”
“What do you mean, Wendy?”
“It is so naughty of him not to wipe,” Wendy said, sighing. She
was a tidy child.
She explained in quite a matter-of-fact way1 that she thought
Peter sometimes came to the nursery in the night and sat on the foot
of her bed and played on his pipe1 2 to her. Unfortunately3 she never -
woke, so she didn’t know how she knew, she just knew.
“What nonsense you talk, precious. No one can get into the house
without knocking.”
“I think he comes in by the window,” she said.
“My love, it is three floors up.”
“Were not the leaves at the foot of the window, mother?”
It was quite true; the leaves had been found very near the win¬
dow.
Mrs Darling didn’t know what to think, for it all seemed so nat¬
ural to Wendy that you could not dismiss4 it by saying she had been
dreaming.
“My child,” the mother cried, “why did you not tell me of this
before?”
“I forgot,” said Wendy lightly. She was in a hurry to get her
breakfast.
Oh, surely she must have been dreaming.5
But, on the other hand, there were the leaves. Mrs Darling exam¬
ined them carefully; they were skeleton leaves, ° but she was sure
they did not come from any tree that grew in England.
Certainly Wendy had been dreaming.
But Wendy had not been dreaming, as the very next night showed,
the night on which the extraordinary adventures of these children
begun.
1 in quite a matter-of-fact way — как само собой разумеющееся
2 played on his pipe — играл на дудочке
3 unfortunately — к несчастью
4 to dismiss — зд. отбросить (мысль)
6 she must have been dreaming — должно быть, она видела это во сне
е skeleton leaves — сухие листья
116

On the night we speak of all the children were once more in bed.
It happened to Nana’s day off, and Mrs Darling had bathed and sung
to them till one by one they had let go her hand and went away into
the land of sleep.
All were looking so safe and cosy1 that she smiled at her fears
now and sat down by the fire to sew. The fire was warm, the nursery
lit by three night-lights and the sewing lay on Mrs Darling’s lap.
Then her head nodded. She was asleep.
While she slept she had a dream. She dreamed that the Neverland
had come too near and that a strange boy had arrived from it. He
did not alarm her, for she thought she had seen him before. And she
saw Wendy and John and Michael.
The dream by itself would have been a trifle,1 2 but while she was
dreaming the window of the nursery blew open, and a boy did drop
on the floor. He was accompanied by a strange light which darted
about the room2 like a living thing; and I think this light wakened
Mrs Darling.
She gave a cry, and saw the boy, and somehow she knew at once
he was Peter Pan. He was a lovely boy, dressed in skeleton leaves,
1 cosy — уютный
2 would have been a trifle — ничего бы не значил
8 which darted about the room — который метался по комнате
117

but the most charming thing about him. was that he had all his first
teeth. When he saw she was a grown-up, he grinned at her.
Mrs Darling screamed, and, as if in answer to a bell, the door
opened, and Nana entered, returned from her evening out. She growled1
and dashed at the boy, who jumped lightly through the window.
Again Airs Darling screamed, this time she was sorry for him, for
she thought he was killed, and she ran down into the street to look
for his little body, but it was not there; and she looked up, and in
the black night she could see nothing but what she thought was a
shooting star.1 2
She returned to the nursery, and found Nana with something in
her mouth, which proved to be the boy’s shadow.3 As he ran up to the
window Nana had closed it quickly, too late to catch him, but his
shadow had not had time to get out.
You may be sure Airs Darling examined the shadow carefully,
but it was the usual kind.
Nana had no doubt of what was the best thing to do with this
shadow. She hung it out at the window, meaning “He is sure to come
back for it; let us put it where he can get it easily without disturbing4 *
the children.”
But unfortunately Mrs Darling could not leave it hanging out at
the window; it looked so like the washing and lowered the whole
tone of the house? She thought of showing it to Mr Darling, but she
knew exactly what he would say: “It all comes of having a dog for a
nurse.”
She decided to roll the shadow up and put it away carefully in
a drawer, until an opportunity came for telling her husband.
The opportunity came a week later, on that never-to-be-forgotten
Friday. Of course it was Friday.
They sat night after night remembering that fatal6 Friday.
“If only I had not accepted7 that invitation to dine at 27,” 8 Mrs
Darling said.
1 to growl [graul] — рычать
2 shooting star — падающая звезда
3 proved to be the boy’s shadow — оказалось тенью мальчика
4 to disturb — беспокоить
6 lowered the whole tone of the house — зд. делало дом не таким респектабель¬
ным
6 fatal ['feɪtl] — роковой
’ If only I had not accepted — Если бы только я не приняла
8 at 27 — в доме № 27
118

“If only I had not poured my medicine into Nana’s bowl,” said
Mr Darling.
“If only I had pretended to like the medicine,” was what Nana’s
wet eyes said.
They would sit there in the empty nursery, remembering every
smallest detail of that dreadful1 evening. It had begun so unevent¬
fully,I 2 like a hundred other evenings, with Nana putting on the wa¬
ter for Michael's bath and carrying him to it on her back.
“I won’t go to bed,” he had shouted, like one who still believed
that he had the last word on the subject. “I won’t, I won’t. Nana,
it isn’t six o’clock yet. Oh dear, oh dear, I shan’t love you any more,
Nana. I tell you I won’t be bathed, I won’t, I won’t!”
Then Mrs Darling had come in, wearing her white evening-dress.
She had dressed early because Wendy so loved to see her in her eve¬
ning-dress, with the necklace3 George had given her.
Mr Darling, too, had been dressing for the party, and all had gone
well with him until he came to his tie. It is a strange thing to tell,
but this man, though he knew about stocks and shares, could not
tie his tie.
He came rushing into the nursery with a tie in his hand.
“Why, what is the matter, father, dear?”
“Matter!” he yelled. “This tie, it will not tie. Not round my neck!
Round the bedpost!4 * Oh yes, twenty times have I made it up round
the bedpost, but round my neck, no! Oh dear no!”
He thought Mrs Darling was not quite impressed, and he went
on, “I warn you of this, mother, that unless this tie is round my neck
we don’t go out to dinner tonight, I never go to the office again, and
if I don’t go to the office again, you and I starve, and our children
will be flung into the streets.” 3
Even then Mrs Darling was calm. “Let me try, dear," she said, and
with her nice cool hands she tied his tie for him, while the children
stood around to see their fate decided.6
Mr Darling thanked her carelessly, at once forgot his anger and in
another moment was dancing round the room with Michael on his back.
I dreadful — ужасный
2 uneventfully — зд. тихо, спокойно
3 necklace ['rɪeklɪs] — ожерелье
4 bedpost — столбик кровати
6 will be flung into the streets — будут выброшены на улицу
6 to see their fate decided — смотреть, как решается их судьба
119

The dance was ended with the appearance of Nana, and most
unluckily Mr Darling, collided1 against her, covering his trousers
with hairs. Of course Mrs Darling brushed him, but he began to talk
again about its being a mistake to have a dog for a nurse.
“George, Nana is a treasure.”
“No doubt, but I have an uneasy feeling at times that she looks
upon the children as puppies.”
“Oh no, dear one, I feel sure she knows they have souls.”1 2
“I wonder,” Air Darling said thoughtfully, “I wonder.” It was an
opportunity, his wife felt, for telling him about the boy. At first
he ignored the story, but he became thoughtful when she showed him
the shadow.
“It is nobody I know,” he said, examining it carefully, “but he
does look a scoundrel.”3
At that moment Nana came with Michael’s medicine. Strong man
though he was, Mr Darling behaved rather foolishly over the medi¬
cine. If he had a weakness, it was for thinking that all his life he had
taken medicine bravely; and so now, when Michael dodged4 * the spoon
in Nana’s mouth, he said, “Be a man, Michael.”
“Won’t, won’t,” Michael cried naughtily. Mrs Darling left the
room to get a chocolate for him.
‘Michael, when I was your age I took medicine without complains,”
Mr Darling said. He really thought this was true, and Wendy believed
it also, and she said, to encourage Michael, “That medicine you
sometimes take, father, is much nastier,6 7 isn’t it?”
“Ever so much nastier,” Mr Darling said bravely, “and I would
take it now as an example to you, Michael, if I hadn’t lost 8 the bot¬
tle.”
He had not exactly lost it; he had climbed in the dead of the
night' to the top of his wardrobe and hidden it there. What he did
not know was that Liza had found it, and put it back on his wash¬
stand. 8
1 to collide — сталкиваться
2 soul [soul] — душа
8 scoundrel ['skaundrəl] — негодяй
4 to dodge — увертываться
6 nastier — противнее
6 I would take it now... if I hadn’t lost — я бы его принял.,, если бы не поте-
р ЯЛ
7 in the dead of the night — темной ночью
8 wash-stand — умывальник
120

“I know where it is, father,” Wendy cried, always glad to be help¬
ful. “I’ll bring it,” and she was off before he could stop her. “John,”
he said, “it’s that nasty sticky, sweet kind.”
“It will soon be over, father,” John said cheerfully, and then in
rushed Wendy with the medicine in a glass.
“I have been as quick as I could,” she said.
“You have been wonderfully quick,” her father answered with a
strange politeness. “Michael first,” he said doggedly.1
“Father first,” said Michael, who was of a suspicious nature.
“I shall be sick, you know,” Mr Darling said.
“Come on, father,” said John.
“Hold your tongue,1 2 John,” his father insisted.
Wendy was quite puzzled. “I thought you took it quite easily,
father.”
“There is more in my glass than in Michael’s spoon,” father re¬
plied. “And it isn’t fair.”
“Father, I am waiting,” said Michael coldly.
“It’s all very well to say you are waiting; so am I waiting.”
“Well, then take it.”
“Well, then, you take it.”
Wendy had a splendid idea. “Why not both take it at the same
time?”
“Certainly,” said Mr Darling. “Are you ready, Michael?” Wendy
gave the words, one, two, three, and Michael took the medicine,
but Mr Darling slipped his behind his back.
There was a yell from Michael, and “0 father!” Wendy exclaimed.
“What do you mean by ‘O father’?” Mr Darling asked. “Stop it,
Michael. I meant to take mine, but I — I missed it.”
It was dreadful the way all the three were looking at him, just
as if they did not admire him. “Look here, all of you,” he said as
soon as Nana had gone into the bathroom. “I have a wonderful idea.
I shall pour my medicine into Nana’s bowl, and she will drink it,
thinking it is milk!”
It was the colour of milk; but the children did not have their
father’s sense of humour, and they looked at him reproachfully3 as
he poured the medicine into Nana’s bowl. “What fun,” he. said doubt¬
fully, and they did not dare to say anything when Nana returned.
1 doggedly ['dɔgɪdlɪ] — упрямо
2 Hold your tongue — Попридержи язык
4 reproachfully — с укором
121

“Nana, good dog,” he said, patting her, “I have put a little milk
into your bowl, Nana.”
Nana wagged her tail,1 ran to the medicine, and began drinking
it. Then she gave Mr Darling such a look, not an angry look: she
showed him the great red tear that makes us sorry for noble dogs,
and went into her kennel.
Air Darling was ashamed of himeslf, but he would not show it.
In a horrid silence Mrs Darling smelt the bowl. “O George,” she said,
“it’s your medicine!”
“It’s only a joke,” he tried to explain, while she comforted the
boys, and Wendy hugged Nana. “Much good,” he said, “my wearing
myself to the bone1 2 trying to be funny in this house.”
And still Wendy hugged Nana. “That’s right,” he shouted. “Hug
her! Kiss her! Nobody kisses me. Oh dear по! I am only breadwinner,3
why should I be kissed, why, why, why!”
“George,” Mrs Darling told him, “not so loud; the servants will
hear you.” Somehow they got a habit of calling Liza the servants.
“Let them,” he answered. “Bring in the whole world. But I refuse
to allow that dog to stay in my nursery for an hour longer.”
The children wept, and Nana ran up to him, but he waved her
back. He felt he was a strong man again. “In vain, in vain,”4 he cried,
“the proper place for you is the yard, and there you will be tied this
moment,”
“George, George,” Mrs Darling whispered, “remember what I
told you about that boy.”
Alas, he would not listen. He seized Nana rudely, dragged her
from the nursery. He was ashamed of himself, and yet he did it. It
was all owing to his nature, which longed for admiration. Then he
tied Nana up in the back yard.
In the meantime,s Mrs Darling had put the children to bed in
silence and lit their night-lights. They could hear Nana barking,
and John whispered, “It is because he is tying her up in the yard,”
but Wendy was wiser.
“That is not Nana’s unhappy bark,” she said, “that is her bark
when she smells danger.”
1 Nana wagged her tail — Нана завиляла хвостом
2 to wear oneself to the bone — из кожи вон лезть
3 breadwinner — кормилец семьи
4 in vain — зря, напрасно
6 in the meantime — тем временем
122

Danger!
“Are you sure, Wendy?”
“Oh yes.”
Mrs Darling went to the window. She looked out, and the night
was peppered with stars.1 They were crowding around the house, as
if curious to see what was to take place there, but she did not notice
this.
Even Michael, already half asleep, knew that she was disturbed,
and he asked, “Can anything harm us, mother, after the night-lights
are lit?”
“Nothing, precious,” she said; “they are the eyes a mother leaves
behind her to guard her children.”
She went from bed to bed singing songs to them, and little
Michael put his arms round her. “Mother,” he cried, “I’m glad of you.”
They were the last wor ds she was to hear from him for a long time.
* * *
Read Pari II of the story Peter Pan and answer the questions: What
fun did the children have with Peter Pan? Who brought Mr and Mrs
Darling home?
PETER PAN
Part II
Mr and Mrs Darling left the house. A moment after the window
was blown open by the breathing of the little stars, and Peter dropped
in. He jumped at the drawers, throwing their things to the floor
with both hands, as kings toss ha’pence to the crowd.1 2 In a moment
he found his shadow, He tried to stick it on3 with soap from the bath¬
room, but that failed. Peter sat down on the floor and cried.
His sobs woke Wendy, and she sat up in bed. She was not alarmed
to see a stranger crying on the nursery floor, she was only pleasantly
interested.
“Boy,” she said politely, “why are you crying?”
Peter could be extremely polite also, having learned the grand
manners at fairy ceremonies, and he rose and bowed4 to her beauti¬
1 the night was peppered with stars — зд. небо было усыпано звездами
2 kings toss ha’pence to the crowd — короли бросают монеты в толпу
3 to stick it on — прикрепить
4 to bow [bau] — поклониться
123

fully. She was much pleased, and bowed beautifully to him from the
bed.
“What's your name?” he asked.
“Wendy Moira ['mɔɪərə] Angela ['ændʒɪlə] Darling,” she replied
with some satisfaction. “What is your name?”
Fctct *811.
She was already sure that he must be Peter, but it did seem such
a short name,
“Is that all?”
“Yes,” he said rather sharply. He felt for the first time that it was
a shortish name.
“I’m so sorry,” said Wendy Moira Angela.
“It doesn’t matter,” Peter replied.
She asked where he lived.
“Second to the right,” said Peter, “and then straight on till morn¬
ing.”
“What a funny address!”
Peter thought a little. For the first time he felt that it was a funny
address.
“No, it isn’t,” be said.
“I mean,” Wendy said nicely, remembering that she was hostess,1
“is that what they put on the letters?”
“Don’t get any letters,” he said.
“But your mother gets letters?”
“Don’t have a mother,” he said. Not only had he no mother, but
he had not the slightest desire to have one. He thought them very
over-rated1 2 * persons. Wendy, however, felt at once that she was in
the presence of a tragedy.
“O Peter, no wonder you were crying,” she said, and got out of
bed and ran to him.
“I wasn’t crying about mothers,” he said rather angrily. “I was
crying because I can’t get my shadow to stick on. Besides, I wasn’t
crying.”
“It has come off?”8
“Yes.”
Then Wendy saw the shadow on the floor, looking so untidy, and
she was frightfully sorry for Peter. “How awful!” she said, but she
1 hostess — хозяйка
2 over-rated — переоцененный, перехваленный
8 It has come off? — зд. Она оторвалась?
124

would not help smiling when she saw that he had been trying to stick
it on with soap. How exactly like a boy!
Fortunateiy she knew at once what to do. “I shall sew it for you,
my little man,” she said, though he was as tall as herself; and she
sewed the shadow on to Peter’s foot.
“I dare say it will hurt a little,” she warned him.
“Oh, I shan’t cry,” said Peter, who was already of opinion that
he had never cried in his life.
“Perhaps I shall iron1 it,” Wendy said thoughtfully; but Peter,
boylike, was indifferent to his appearance, and he was now jumping
about. Alas, he had forgotten that he owed it to Wendy. He thought
he had sewed the shadow himself. “How clever I am,” he boasted, “oh,
the cleverness of me!”
For the moment Wendy was shocked. “Of course I did nothing!”
“You did a little,” Peter said carelessly, and continued to dance.
When people are introduced, it is usual for them to ask each oth¬
er’s age, and so Wendy, who always liked to do the correct thing,
asked Peter how old he was. It was not really a happy question to
ask him; it was like an examination paper that asks grammar, when
you want to be asked about Kings of England.
“I don’t know,” he replied. He really knew nothing about it. “Wen¬
dy,” he said, “I ran away the day I was born.”
Wendy was quite surprised, but interested.
“It was because I heard father and mother,” he explained in a
low voice, “talking about what I was to be when I became a man.
I don’t want ever to be a man,” he said with passion.1 2 * “I want always
to be a little boy and to have fun. So I ran away to Kensington Gar¬
dens and lived a long time among the fairies.”
She gave him a look of great admiration, and he thought it was
because he had run away, but it was really because he knew fairies,
Wendy had lived such a home life that to know fairies struck her as
quite delightful,2 and he told her about the beginning of fairies.
“You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time,
its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping
about,4 and that was the beginning of fairies. And so,” he went on
good-naturedly, “there ought to be one fairy for every boy and girl.”
1 to iron ['aɪən] — гладить
2 passion ['pæʃən]—страсть
2 struck her as quite delightful — показалось ей замечательным
4 all went skipping about — все рассыпались
125

“Ought to be? Isn’t there?”
“No. You see, children know such a lot now, they soon don’t
believe in fairies, and every time a child says, ‘I don’t believe in
fairies,’ there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.”
They were together in the arm-chair by this time, and Wendy
asked him more questions.
“Do you still live in Kensington Gardens?”
“Sometimes I do.”
“But where do you live mostly now?”
“With the lost boys.”
“Who are they?”
“They are the children who fall out of their perambulators when
the nurse is looking the other way. If they are not claimed1 in seven
days they are sent far away to the Neverland. I’m captain.”
“What fun it must be!”
“Yes,” said cunning Peter, “but we are rather lonely. You see we
have no female companionship.”1 2
“Are none of the others girls?”
“Oh no; girls, you know, are much too clever to fall out of their
prams.”3
This flattered Wendy immensely.4 “I think,” she said, “it is per¬
fectly lovely the way you talk about girls.” She was just slightly
disappointed when he admitted that he came to the nursery window
not to see her but to listen to stories.
“You see I don’t know any stories. None of the lost boys know
any stories.”
“How perfectly awful,” Wendy said.
“Do you know,” Peter asked, “why swallows build their nests
under the roofs of the houses? It is to listen to the stories. О Wendy,
your mother was telling you such a lovely story.”
“Which story was it?”
“About the prince who couldn’t find the lady who wore the glass
slipper.”
“Peter,” said Wendy excitedly, “that was Cinderella, and he
found her, and they lived happily after that.”
1 if they are not claimed — зд. Если о них никто не спрашивает
2 female companionship — женское общество
3 pram = perambulator
4 flattered Wendy immensely — очень польстило Венди
126

Peter was so glad that he rose and hurried to the window. “Where
are you going?” she cried.
“To tell the other boys.”
“Don’t go, Peter,” she asked him. “I know such lots of stories.’*
Peter came back, and there was a greedy1 look in his eyes. “Wen¬
dy, do come with me and tell the other boys.”
Of course she was very pleased to be asked, but she said, “Oh
dear, I can’t. Think of mummy! Besides, I can’t fly,”
“I’ll teach you.”
“Oh, how lovely to fly.”
“I’ll teach you how to jump on the wind’s back, and then away
we go.”
“Oo!” she exclaimed.
“Wendy, Wendy, when you are sleeping in your silly bed you might
be flying about with me saying funny things to the stars.”
“Oo!”
“And, Wendy, there are mermaids.”1 2
“Mermaids! With tails?”
“Such long tails.”
“Oh,” cried Wendy, “to see a mermaid!”
He had become cunning. “Wendy,” he said, “how we should all
respect you.”
“Oo,” and her arms went out to him,
“And you could darn3 our clothes, and make pockets for us. None
of us has any pockets.”
How could she resist? “Of course it’s awfully fascinating!”4 * she
cried. “Peter, would you teach John and Michael to fly too?”
“If you like,” he said indifferently; and she ran to John and
Michael 'and shook them. “Wake up,” she cried, “Peter Pan has come
and he is to teach us to fly.”
John rubbed his eyes. “Then I shall get up,” he said. Of course
he was on the floor already. “Hallo,” he said, “I am up!”
Michael was up by this time also, looking as sharp as a knife
with six blades,6 but Peter suddenly signed silence. They were all
1 greedy — жадный
2 mermaid — русалка
3 to darn — штопать
4 fascinating — зд, соблазнительно
6 looking as sharp as a knife with six blades — сна у него (Майкла) не было ни
в одном глазу (букв, острый, как нож с шестью лезвиями)
127

listening for sounds from the grown-up world. All was still. Then
everything was right. No, stop! Everything was wrong. Nana, who
had been barking all the evening, was quiet now. It was her silence
they had heard.
“Out the light! Hide! Quick!” cried John. And thus when Liza
entered, holding Nana, the nursery seemed quiet and dark, and you
could swear1 you heard the three children breathing quietly as they
slept. They were really doing it from behind the curtains.
Liza was in a bad temper, for she was mixing the Christmas pud¬
ding in the kitchen, and had been drawn away from it, with a raisin2
still on her cheek, by Nana’s absurd suspicions.2 She thought the
best way of getting a little quiet was to take Nana to the nursery for
a moment.
“There, you suspicious animal,” she said, “they are perfectly safe,
aren’t they? Every one of the little angels4 sound asleep in bed. Lis¬
ten to their quiet breathing.”
Here Michael, encouraged by his success, breathed so loudly that
they were nearly detected.6 Nana knew that kind of breathing, and
she understood everything.
But Liza said, “No more of it, Nana,” and pulled her out of the
room. “I warn you if you bark again I shall go straight for master and
missus and bring them home from the party, and then, oh, won’t
master whip you, just.”
She tied the unhappy dog again, but do you think Nana ceased
to bark? Bring master and missus back from the party! Why, that was
just what she wanted. Unfortunately Liza returned to her pudding,
and Nana, seeing that no help would come from her, pulled and
pulled at the chain 6 until at last she broke it. In another moment she
had burst into 7 the dining room of 27. Mr and Airs Darling knew
at once that something terrible was happening in their nursery,
and without a good-bye to their hostess they rushed into the street.
But it was now ten minutes since three scoundrels 8 had been breath¬
ing behind the curtains; and Peter Pan can do a lot in ten minutes.
1 to swear — клясться
2 raisin ['reɪzn] — изюм, a raisin — изюмина
2 absurd suspicion [əb'sə:d səs'pɪʃn] — нелепое подозрение
4 angel ['eɪnʤəl] — ангел
6 they were nearly detected — их чуть не обнаружили
6 chain — цепь
! to burst into — ворваться в
8 scoundrel — зд, негодник
128

!	We now return to the nursery.
t	“It is all right,” John announced. “I say, Peter, can you really
fly?”
Instead of troubling to answer him Peter flew round the room.
“How wonderful!” said John and Michael.
“How sweet!” cried Wendy.
“Yes, I’m sweet, oh, I am sweet,” said Peter, forgetting his man¬
ners again. It looked delightfully easy, and they tried it first from
the floor and then from the beds, but they always went down instead
of up.
“I say, how do you do it?” asked John, rubbing his knee. He was
quite a practical boy.
“You just think lovely wonderful thoughts,” Peter explained,
“and they lift you up in the air.”
He showed them again.
John asked, “Could you do it very slowly once?”
Peter did it both slowly and quickly. “I’ve got it now, Wendy!”
cried John, but. soon he found he had not. Not one of them could fly
an inch,1 though even Michael was in words of two syllables,1 2 and
Peter did not know A from Z.3
Of course Peter had been fooling them, for no one can fly unless
the fairy dust has been-blown on him. Fortunately, there was some
dust on his hands, and he blew some on each of them. Immediately
they were flying about the room,
“I flew!” Michael cried while still in the air.
“Oh, lovely!”
“Oh, wonderful!”
“Look at me!"
“Look at me!”
“Look at me!”
They were not nearly so elegant ['elɪgənt] as Peter, they could
not help kicking a little, but their heads were touching the ceiling,
and there is almost nothing so delicious as that.
Up and down they went, and round and round.
“I say,” cried John, “why shouldn’t we all go out!”
Of course it was the very thing Peter had been wishing.
1 inch — дюйм (2,54 см)
2 was in words of two syllables — мог читать двусложные слова
2 did not know A from Z — не мог отличить А от Я
129

Michael was ready: he wanted to see how long it took him to do
a billion1 miles. But Wendy hesitated.
“Mermaids!” said Peter again.
“Ool”
“And there are pirates.”
“Pirates,” cried John, seizing his Sunday hat, “let us go at once.”
1 billion — миллиард
130

It was just at this moment that Mr and Mrs Darling hurried with
Nana out of 27. They ran into the middle of the street to look up
at the nursery window; and, yes, it was still shut, there was light
in the room, and the most heart-gripping1 sight of all, they could
see in shadow on the curtain three little figures circling1 2 3 round and
round, not on the floor but in the air,
Not three figures, four!
In a tremble they opened the street door. Mr Darling wanted to
rush upstairs, but Mrs Darling signed him to go softly. She even
tried to make her heart go softly.
Will they reach the nursery in time? If so, how delightful for them,
and we shall all breathe a sigh of relief,3 but there will be no story.
They would have reached the nursery in time had it not been that
the little stars were w’atching them. Once again the stars blew the
window open, and the smallest star of all called out:
“Come, Peter!”
Then Peter knew that there was not a moment to lose. “Come,”
he cried and flew out at once into the night followed by John and
Michael and Wendy.
Mr and Mrs Darling and Nana rushed into the nursery too late.
The birds were flown.
1 heart-gripping — душераздирающий
2 to circle — кружить
3 to breathe a sigh of relief — вздохнуть с облегчением

LOOKING BACK
Remember the stories you’ve read in this book. Give detailed
answers to each of the following questions.
1.	Have a look at the list of characters. Say which of them would
be likely to make friends and which would never understand each
other. Give your reasons.
Henry Reed, Midge
Robert, Janet
Roger Deer Leg, Mary
Sausage
Katie John
Shirley Bentley
2.	Which of the characters did you like best, why? Which of them
would you like to have as a friend? What things would you like
to do together?
3.	What new things about the life of children in Great Britain and
the USA have you learned?
4.	What types of stories are collected in this book?
5.	Which of the stories are the most exciting, educative, moralizing,
romantic?
6.	Which of the stories are intended for adults as well?
7.	Would you like to read more by any of the authors whose stories
you’ve read in this book? Explain your choice.

WHO'S WHO
Keith Robertson, a famous American writer, was born in Dows, Iowa,
in 1914. He was educated at the United States Naval Academy.
After graduating from the Academy he served in the United States
Navy. In the wartime (1941-1945) he was an officer on destroyers.
After the war he became a free-lance writer.
Keith Robertson’s boys are considered to be natural descendants
of Tom Sawyer. They are bright, ambitious, inventive, never still
for a moment. They are boys who never grow up, just like Tom
Sawyer remains a boy forever. Keith Robertson’s characters re¬
main children not in the magic way of Peter Pan’s Neverland
agelessness, but simply because boyishness is their very nature.
Philippa Pearce, one of the leading British 20th century children’s
writers, was born in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire. She got her
education in Girton College, Cambridge, then she worked as a civ¬
il servant, a scriptwriter and a producer in the Schools Radio de¬
partment of the BBC. Later she joined the Oxford University Press
as an editor in the Educational Department, then worked as
Children’s Editor with a London publishing house.
The story “Return to Air” is included in the collection of sto¬
ries about children’s daily experiences entitled “What the Neigh¬
bours Did”, published in 1972.
Hilda Boden, an English writer, was born in Stratfordshire, England,
in 1901. Her real name was Bodenham, Hilda, Moris. All her books
for children were published under pseudonym Hilda Boden. She
got her education in King Edward’s school in Birmingham.
133

Catherine Woolley, an American writer, was born in 1904 in Chicago,
got her education at the University of California at Los Angeles.
After the university she worked as an advertising copywriter, then
an editor. In 1947 she withdrew from business and devoted herself
to writing for children.
Marguerite de Angeii, a biographer and writer of children’s fiction,
was born in 1889. She worked as a library assistant, then turned
to writing for children. She is the author of many novels and sto¬
ries.
Jean Fritz, an American writer of children’s fiction, was born in 1915.
Her book “Champion Dog Prince Tom” was written in 1958 with
Tom Clute. She worked as children's librarian, teacher, book re¬
viewer.
Ray Bradbury, a very popular American science fiction writer, was
born on August 22, 1920. After finishing high school he went into
a. little theatre group in Los Angeles, but after a year he was
dropped out and became a newsboy to finance his writing. He
started his literary career with short stories. In 1943 he became
a full-time writer.
His writings have been published in a dozen languages includ¬
ing Russian.
Though his books are full of adventures and outstanding events,
he has never learned to drive a car and has never flown. His hob¬
bies include painting in oil and water colours, and collecting
Mexican tribal dance masks.
Janies Matthew Barrie was born in Forfarshire, Scotland, in 1860,
got his education at Glasgow Academy. After 1885 he worked as
a drama and book critic in London.
J. M. Barrie is the author of many books and dramatic works,
but his story for children “Peter Pan” (1904) has become the most
famous, a major myth of the century. The roots of the tale about
Peter Pan go back to the author’s childhood. Barrie recalled how
his mother’s childhood had ended at 8, when she had to become the
family’s housekeeper. “The horror of my boyhood was,” he noted,
“that I knew, a` time would come when I must also give up games,
and how it was to be done, I saw not.”
134

The prototypes of Peter, John and Michael were the sons of Sylvia
and Arthur Llewellyn Davis, the author’s friends. They lived at
31 Kensington Park Gardens, where Barrie soon became a familiar
figure, loved by the boys for his ability to amuse them with many
tricks and stories he told them.
“Peter Pan” was firstly written as a dramatic work. The play had
to wait for several years for a definite printed version, The story did
not appear until 1911,

VOCABULARY
a — adjective
adv — adverb
cj — conjunction
int — interjection
n — noun
num — numeral
part — particle
pl — plural
prep — preposition
pr n — proper noun
pron — pronoun
v — verb
амер.— американский
зд.— здесь
А
absolutely ['æbsəlu:tlɪ] adv совершен¬
но, абсолютно
accompany [ə'kʌmpənɪ] v сопровож¬
дать, сопутствовать
accountant [ə'kauntənt] п бухгалтер
ache [eɪk] v болеть
affair [ə'feə] п дело
afterwards ['ɑ--ftəwədz] adv впослед¬
ствии, потом, позже
alarm [ə'leem] v тревожить(ся), бес¬
покоиться)
alarm clock будильник
allowance [ə'lauəns] п зд. карманные
деньги
amazing [ə'meɪzɪŋ] а удивительный,
поразительный
apartment ɪə'pɑ:tmənt] п амер, квар¬
тира
apparently [ə'pærəntlɪ] adv очевидно
approval [ə'prwvəl] п одобрение
approve [ə'pru:v] V одобрять, считать
правильным
argue [' evgju:] v спорить
arrange [ə'reɪndʒj v приводить в по¬
рядок, устраивать
ascension [ə'senʃən] п подъем
assembly [ə'semblɪ] п сбор, собрание
assembly hall актовый зал
assignment [ə'saɪnmənt] п назначение
assure [ə'ʃuə] о уверять, заверять
attract [ə'trækt] v привлекать
attractive [ə'træktɪv] а привлека¬
тельный
available [ə'veɪləbl] а пригодный, по¬
лезный, доступный
awaken [ə'weɪkn] v прсбуждать(ся)
awful ['ɔ:ful] а ужасный, страшный
В
baby-sit ['beɪbɪsɪtj v оставаться с (чу¬
жими) детьми за плату
baby-sitter ['beɪbɪ ,sɪtə] п приходя¬
щая няня
bald [bɔ:ld] а лысый, плешивый
band [bændj п оркестр
brass band духовой оркестр
barn [bɑ:n] п сарай
basement ['beɪsmənt] п подвал
bat [bæt] п летучая мышь
beach [bi:ʧ] п пляж
beak [bi-.k] п клюв
bear [beə] (bore, born) v выносить,
переносить
beneath [bɪ'niɪθ] prep внизу, ниже
beware [bɪ'wɛə] v беречься, предосте¬
регаться
bind [baɪnd] (bound, bound [baund]) v
переплетать, брошюровать
bit [bit] n кусок
a bit of smth немного, чуть-чуть
blind [blaɪnd] n ставень
block [blɔk] n квартал
blond [blɔnd] а светлый
blow up ['blou 'ʌp] v взрывать(ся)
bobbing ['bɔbɪŋ] n приседание, танец
booklet ['buklɪt] n брошюра
booth [btɪ:ð] n будка
bottom ['bɔtəm] n дно
bound [baund] cm. bind
bowl [boul] n миска, таз, чашка
bracelet ['breɪsht] n браслет
brass [brɑ:s] а медный
breath [breθ] n дыхание
136

to take a breath перевести дух
to hold one’s breath затаить дыха¬
ние
to let out a breath выдохнуть
to be out of breath запыхаться
breathe [brl--ð] v дышать
brick [brɪk] n кирпич
bundle ['bʌndl] n сверток
burst [bəst] v взрываться
to burst into ворваться в
С
camera ['kæmərə] n фотоаппарат
canoe [kə'nu:] n каноэ
canoe landing причал
cardboard ['kɑ:dbɔ:d] n картон
carriage ['kærɪdʒ] n детская коляска
cellar ['selə] n подвал
ceremony ['serɪmənɪ] n церемония
certificate [sə'tɪfɪkɪt] n удостовере¬
ние, свидетельство
birth certificate свидетельство о
рождении
charge [tʃæʤ] n цена; v запрашивать,
назначать цену
chase [ʧeɪs] v гнаться, преследовать
chatter ['tʃætə] п болтовня, щебета¬
ние; v болтать
chest [ ʧest] п грудь
chief [ʧɪ:f] а главный
china closet [! ʧarnə'klɔzɪt] п шкаф
для посуды
chubby ['tʃʌbɪ] а круглолицый, пол¬
ный
clergyman ['klə:ʤɪmən] п священник
click [klɪk] v щелкать
cliff [klɪf] п утес, отвесная скала
cling [klɪŋ] (clung, clung [klʌŋ]) v
цепляться, держаться (за что-л.)
closet ['klɔzɪt] п стенной шкаф
clutch [klʌtʃ] v схватить, стиснуть
coach [kouʧ] п карета (почтовая)
cocky ['kɔkɪ] а дерзкий, нахальный
comfort ['kʌmfət] v утешать, успо¬
каивать
community [kə'mju:nɪtɪ] п община
complete [kəm'pll:t] а полный
completely [kəm'plɪ:tlɪ] adv полно¬
стью
complicated ['kɔmplɪkeɪtɪd] а слож¬
ный, трудный для понимания
confidently ['kɔnfɪdəntlɪ] adv уверен¬
но, доверительно
considerate [kərɪ'sɪdərɪt] а внимате¬
льный, заботливый
contain [kən'teɪn] v содержать
contents ['kɔntents] п содержание
cookies ['kukɪz] п pl домашнее пече¬
нье
cough [kɔf] v кашлять
counter ['kauntə] п прилавок
cradle ['kreɪdl] п колыбель
creek [krl:k] п речка, рукав реки, за¬
водь
current ['kʌrənt] п течение
D
dash [dæʃ] v бросаться, мчаться, не¬
стись
deck 1 [dek] п зд. настил
deck 2 [dek] п колода (карт)
delicious [dɪ'lɪʃəs] а восхитительный
deliver [dɪ'lɪvə] v разносить, достав¬
лять
demand [dɪ'mti:nd] v требовать
dentist ['dentist] п зубной врач
design [dɪ'zaɪn] v создавать фасон;
заниматься проектированием
designer [dɪ'zaɪnə] п зд. модельер
despite [dɪs'paɪt] prep вопреки
develop [dɪ'veləp] v создавать, разра¬
батывать
diary ['daɪərɪ] п дневник
direct [d(a)ɪ'rekt] а прямой
directly [d(a)ɪ'rektlɪ] adv прямо, не¬
посредственно
discourage [dɪs'kʌrɪdʒ] v приводить
в уныние, обескураживать
display [dɪs'pleɪ] v показывать, де¬
монстрировать
dispose [dɪs'pouz] v располагать, раз¬
мещать
distribute [dɪs'trɪbj mt] v распреде¬
лять
137

disturb [dts'tə:b] v беспокоить
dive [darv] v нырять
dodge [dɔʤj v уклоняться, делать об¬
манное движение
donkey ['dɔŋkɪ] п осел
doubtful ['dautful[ а нерешительный,
полный сомнений
drawer [drɔ:] п ящик стола
drift [drift] v уноснть(ся)
drown [draun] v тонуть
drugstore ['drʌgstɔ:] п аптека
drumstick ['drʌmstɪk] п барабанная
палочка
Е
edge [eʤ] п край
embarrass [ɪm'bærəs] v беспокоить,
смущать
erect [ɪ'rekt] v воздвигать, возводить
evidence ['evɪdəns] п свидетельство
evidently ['evɪdəntlɪ] adv очевидно
evil ['i:vl] п зло
exactly [ɪg'zæktlɪ] adv точно
except [ɪk'sept] prep за исключением
experience [ɪks'pɪərɪəns] я опыт
expert ['ekspəd] п специалист
extraordinary [ɪks'trɔ:dnrɪ] а необыч¬
ный
F
fade [feɪd] v эд. гаснуть
fail [feɪl] v не суметь, потерпеть не¬
удачу
fair [feə] п ярмарка
fascinating ['fæsɪneɪtrŋl а очарова¬
тельный, обворожительный
fasten ['fɑrsn] v зд. прикреплять, при¬
калывать
fault [fɔ:lt] п ошибка, вина
it’s not my fault это не моя вина
fiction ['fɪkʃn] я художественная ли¬
тература
fiercely ['fɪəslɪl adv горячо
figure out ['fɪgər 'aut] v рассчитывать
firm [fə:mj а твердый
flicker [(flɪkə] v мерцать
float [flout] v плавать, держаться на
поверхности, нестись по ветру
flour ['flauə] п мука
foam [foum] п пена
folder ['fouldə] п папка
fortune ['fɔ: tʃən] п судьба
fortuneteller ['fɔ: ʧən ,teɪə] я гадалка
freckle ['frekl] п веснушка
G
gaiety ['geɪətɪ] я радость, веселье
gentle ['ʤentl] а мягкий, добрый,
благородный
gently ['ʤentlɪ] adv мягко, учтиво
ghost [goust] п привидение
giggle ['gɪgl] v хихикать
glance [glams] я взгляд; осмотреть
gloomy ['glu:mɪ] а мрачный
gnome [noum] я гном
grab [græb] v хватать
graceful ['greɪsful] а грациозный
grasp [grɑ:sp] я крепкое объятие
grieve [grtv] v оплакивать
grin [grin] v широко улыбаться
guard [gɑ:d] v охранять
gypsy ['ʤɪpsɪ] я цыган, цыганка
Н
hamburger ['hæmbə:gə] я булка с
бифштексом
handle ['hændi] я ручка
hanger ['hæŋə] я вешалка
heap [hi:p] я груда, куча
hearth [hɑ:θ] п очаг
hesitate ['hezɪteɪt] v сомневаться
horror ['hɔrə] п ужас
hug [hʌg] v обнимать
hut [hʌt] п хижина
I
ignore [rg'nɔ:] v игнорировать, не об¬
ращать внимания
improve [ɪm'pru:v] v улучшать, со¬
вершенствовать
interrupt [ ,ɪntə'rʌpt] v прерывать
138

insist [ɪn'sɪst] v настаивать
instruct [m'strʌkt] v учить, обучать
iron ['aɪən] п железо
J
junk [ʤʌŋk] n утиль, отбросы, маку¬
латура
К
keen [kin] а острый, пронзительный
kennel ['kenəl] n конура
kick [kɪk] v ударить
kid [kɪd] n амер, ребенок
L
lawn [lɔ:n] n лужайка, газон
leap [li:p] n прыжок; v прыгать
lettuce ['letɪs] n салат
line [lain] n удочка
long for ['lɔŋ fɔ:] v стремиться
loose [lu:s] а свободный, болтающий¬
ся, непривязанный
get loose развязаться, оторваться
lung [lʌŋ] n легкое
luxury ['lʌkʃərɪ] n роскошь
M
mantel ['mæntl] n каминная полка
maple ['meɪpl] n клен
miserable ['mɪzərəbl] а несчастный
misery ['mɪzərɪ] n тоска, горесть
mist [mist] n туман, дымка
mop [mɔp] n копна
moss [mɔs] n мох
movie ['mu:vɪ] n фильм; кинотеатр
mud [mʌd] n грязь
murmur ['mə:mə] v бормотать
N
naked ['neɪkɪd] а голый
nasty ['nɑɪstɪ] а отвратительный
net [net] n сетка, сеть
nozzle ['nɔzl] n хобот
О
occasion [ə'keɪʒən] n случай
occasional [ə'keɪʒənl] а случайный
ottering [`'ɔfərɪŋ] n предложение, под¬
ношение
old-fashioned ['ould'fæʃənd] а старо¬
модный
opportunity [ʃɔpə'tju:nɪtɪ] n возмож¬
ность
owing to ['oiɪɪŋ tu] prep благодаря
(кому-л., чему-л.)
P
«а
palm [pɑ:m] n ладонь
panicky ['pænɪkɪ] а панический
park [pɑ:k] (a car) у поставить ма¬
шину
party ['pɑ:tɪ] n зд. группа
pass out ['pɑ:s'aut] v раздавать
pat [pæt] v гладить
peak [pl:k] n конек крыши
perambulator ['præmbjuleɪtə] n дет¬
ская коляска
permission [pə'mɪʃən] n разрешение
pigeon ['pɪʤɪn] n голубь
pile [pail] n кипа
plump [plʌmp] а пухлый, толстый
point [point] v указывать
pop up ['pɔp 'ʌp] v вскидывать го¬
лову
pop out ['pop 'aut] v выглядывать
popcorn ['pɔpkɔ:n] n воздушная ку¬
куруза
porch [pɔ:tʃ] n крыльцо
possess [pə'zes] v обладать, владеть
pour [pɔ:] v лить
precious ['preʃəs] а драгоценный
promising ['prɔmɪsɪŋ] а многообе¬
щающий
pull [pul] v тянуть
pumpkin ['pʌmpkɪn] n тыква
punctual ['pʌŋktj uəl] а точный, пунк¬
туальный
puzzle ['pʌzl] v удивлять, озадачи¬
вать
139

Q
quotation [kwou'teɪʃən] n цитата
R
railing ['reɪlɪŋ] n перила
rapid ['ræpɪd] а быстрый
rattle ['rætl] v стучать; n погремушка
reference ['refrəns] n ссылка; реко¬
мендация
refrigerator [rɪ'frɪʤəreɪtə] n холо¬
дильник
retn [rein] n повод, поводок
request [rɪ'kwest] n просьба; v про¬
сить
rescue ['reskjti:] v спасать
reservation [ /ezə'veɪʃən] n резерва¬
ция
restaurant ['restərɔŋ] n ресторан
revolve [n'vɔlv] v вращать
ritual ['ntiuəl] n ритуал
roast [roust] v жарить, печь, запекать
rod [rɔd] n удочка
rush [rʌʃ] v бросаться, кидаться
S
saddle ['sædl] n седло
satisfaction [,sætɪs'fækʃən] n удов¬
летворение
sausage ['sɔsɪʤ] n сосиска
scan [skænj v бегло просматривать
scare [skɛəj v испугать
scoundrel ['skaundrəl] n негодяй,
негодник
scratch [skrætʃj v царапать
scream [skrtm] v кричать
seal [si:l] n тюлень
search [sə:ʧ] v искать
set off ['set 'of] v отправляться, вы¬
ходить
set the table ['set ðə'teɪbl] накрывать
на стол
sewing ['souɪŋ] n шитье
sewing machine ['souɪŋ mə'ʃim]
швейная машина
shadow ['ʃædou] n тень
140
share [ʃɛə] v разделять
shiver ['ʃɪvə] v дрожать
sidewalk ['saɪdwɔ:k] n амер, тротуар
sigh [saɪ] v вздыхать
sink [sɪŋk] (sank [sæŋk], sunk [sʌŋk])
о тонуть, погружаться
slap [sɪæp] v ударять рукой
slightly ['slaɪtlɪ] adv слегка, едва
slip1 [slip] v скользить
slip 3 [slip] n длинная узкая полоска
slipper ['slɪpə] n комнатная туфля
slippery ['slɪpərɪ] а скользкий
smart [smɑ:t] а умный
smooth [sɪnu:ðl а гладкий, ровный
sob [sɔb] v рыдать, плакать
spaghetti [spə'geti] n pl спагетти,
итальянские макароны
special ['speʃəl] а специальный
spread [spred] (spread, spread) v рас¬
пространяться)
stable ['steɪbi[ n стойло
stare [stɛə] v уставиться, присталь
но смотреть
steady ['stedɪ] а прочный, твердый
sticky ['stlkɪ] а липкий
stroke [strouk] tɪ гладить (по голове)
stubborn ['stʌbən] а упрямый
suggestion [sə'ʤes tʃən] п предложе-
НИС
suppose [sə'pouz] v предполагать
surface ['sə`-hs] п поверхность
survival [sə'vaɪvəɪj п выживание
survive [sə'vaɪv] v выживать
1
talent ['tælənt] п талант
terror ['terə] п ужас, страх
throb [θrɔb] п пульс; v пульсировать
tilt [tilt] v наклонить (голову)
toss [tɔs] v трясти; бросать
trade [treɪd] п торговля, дело
trading centre п торговый центр
trash [træʃl п барахло, мусор
tremendous [trɪ'mendəs] а ужасный,
огромный

и
ugly ['ʌghl а безобразный
unless [ən'les] prep если не
up-end [ʌp'end] v принять вертикаль¬
ное положение
V
valuable ['væljuəbl] а ценный
vision ['vɪʒən] п зрение; видение
W
wade [weɪd] v входить в воду
warn [wɔ:n] v предостерегать
warrior ['wɔrɪə] п воин
wave [weiv] v махать
weep [wi:p] (wept, wept [wept]) v пла¬
кать, рыдать
wire ['waɪə] n проволока; а прово¬
лочный
wistful ['wistful] а мечтательный, за¬
думчивый
witch [wɪʧ] n ведьма
wonderment ['wʌndəmənt] п удивле¬
ние, изумление
worm [wə:m] n червяк
wrap [ræp] v заворачивать
wristwatch ['rɪstwɔʧ] n наручные
часы
Y
yell [jel] n крик; v кричать

CONTENTS
UNIT	1.	The Great	Balloon	Ascension.	Parti	, 		 4
The Great	Balloon	Ascension.	P a r t II			 10
UNIT	2.	Return to	Air			 18
Street Fair 	  .			 23
UNIT 3. The Spoiled Child	   31
Baby-sitting	 39
UNIT 4. Bright April. Parti			 47
Bright April. P a r t II	   56
UNIT 5. Time in Thy Flight 		 65
UNIT 6. Greyling 		 71
Halloween Night . 		 76
UNIT 7. Ta-Na-E-Ka 		   81
UNIT 8. The Secret of the Black Box	 90
UNIT 9. My Work as Lenin’s Librarian			 95
Test Reading I. A Birthday Gift	 101
Test Reading II. Runaway Alice 		   107
Supplementary Reading. Peter Pan. Parti 		  112
Peter Pan. Part II .... 		 123
Looking Back 		  ,	. .	132
Who’s Who	   133
Vocabulary.	  >	136

К 53 Книга для чтения к учебнику английского языка для
VIII класса школ с углубленным изучением английского
языка/Сост. В. Н. Богородицкая, В. Р. Трусова.— М.: Про¬
свещение, 1989.— 144 с,: ил.
ISBN 5-09-000661-X
Книга для чтения является составной частью учебно-методического
комплекта по английскому языку для VIII класса школ с углубленным
изучением английского языка. Тексты книги для чтения соотнесены
с соответствующими циклами учебника, новые слова объяснены в снос¬
ках. В конце книги имеется англо-русский словарь.
4306020000	401
К—f03(03j—89—ИНФ- письмо—89, доп. № 1	ББК 81.2Авгл-В22

Учебное издание
КНИГА ДЛЯ ЧТЕНИЯ
к учебнику английского языка
для VIII класса школ с углубленным
изучением английского языка
Составители
Богородицкая Валентина Николаевна
Трусова Вера Руфовна
Зав. редакцией Л. AI. Узунова
Редактор О. М. Алтухова
Младший редактор Н. Ю. Бахтиярова
Художник И. С. Слуцкер
Художественный редактор Л. Ф. Малышева
Технический редактор И. Е. Хилобок
Корректоры О. В. Мокрович, А. А, Семина
ИБ № 10650
Сдано в набор 09.06.88. Подписано к печати 14.02.89. Формат бОХЭО’Ла. Бум. кн.-журн.
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