章节正文
"I must go with you, I suppose."
"Oh, no! please not," said Diamond. "They might think I was going
to meddle with them, and I ain't, you know."
"Well, do as you please," said the man, and gave him full directions.
Diamond set off, never suspecting that the policeman, who was a
kind-hearted man, with children of his own, was following him close,
and watching him round every corner. As he went on, all at once
he thought he remembered the place, and whether it really was so,
or only that he had laid up the policeman's instructions well in
his mind, he went straight for the cellar of old Sal.
"He's a sharp little kid, anyhow, for as simple as he looks,"
said the man to himself. "Not a wrong turn does he take!
But old Sal's a rum un for such a child to pay a morning visit to.
She's worse when she's sober than when she's half drunk. I've seen
her when she'd have torn him in pieces."
Happily then for Diamond, old Sal had gone out to get some gin.
When he came to her door at the bottom of the area-stair and knocked,
he received no answer. He laid his ear to the door, and thought he heard
a moaning within. So he tried the door, and found it was not locked!
It was a dreary place indeed,--and very dark, for the window was below
the level of the street, and covered with mud, while over the grating
which kept people from falling into the area, stood a chest of drawers,
placed there by a dealer in second-hand furniture, which shut out
almost all the light. And the smell in the place was dreadful.
Diamond stood still for a while, for he could see next to nothing,
but he heard the moaning plainly enough now, When he got used
to the darkness, he discovered his friend lying with closed eyes
and a white suffering face on a heap of little better than rags in
a corner of the den. He went up to her and spoke; but she made him
no answer. Indeed, she was not in the least aware of his presence,
and Diamond saw that he could do nothing for her without help.
So taking a lump of barley-sugar from his pocket, which he had bought
for her as he came along, and laying it beside her, he left the place,
having already made up his mind to go and see the tall gentleman,
Mr. Raymond, and ask him to do something for Sal's Nanny, as the girl
was called.
By the time he got up the area-steps, three or four women who had
seen him go down were standing together at the top waiting for him.
They wanted his clothes for their children; but they did not follow
him down lest Sal should find them there. The moment he appeared,
they laid their hands on him, and all began talking at once,
for each wanted to get some advantage over her neighbours.
He told them quite quietly, for he was not frightened, that he
had come to see what was the matter with Nanny.
"What do you know about Nanny?" said one of them fiercely. "Wait till
old Sal comes home, and you'll catch it, for going prying into her
house when she's out. If you don't give me your jacket directly,
I'll go and fetch her."
"I can't give you my jacket," said Diamond. "It belongs to my
father and mother, you know. It's not mine to give. Is it now?
You would not think it right to give away what wasn't yours--
would you now?"
"Give it away! No, that I wouldn't; I'd keep it," she said,
with a rough laugh. "But if the jacket ain't yours, what right have
you to keep it? Here, Cherry, make haste. It'll be one go apiece."
They all began to tug at the jacket, while Diamond stooped and kept
his arms bent to resist them. Before they had done him or the jacket
any harm, however, suddenly they all scampered away; and Diamond,
looking in the opposite direction, saw the tall policeman coming
towards him.
"You had better have let me come with you, little man," he said,
looking down in Diamond's face, which was flushed with his resistance.
"You came just in the right time, thank you," returned Diamond.
"They've done me no harm."
"They would have if I hadn't been at hand, though."
"Yes; but you were at hand, you know, so they couldn't."
Perhaps the answer was deeper in purport than either Diamond
or the policeman knew. They walked away together, Diamond telling
his new friend how ill poor Nanny was, and that he was going to let
the tall gentleman know. The policeman put him in the nearest way
for Bloomsbury, and stepping out in good earnest, Diamond reached
Mr. Raymond's door in less than an hour. When he asked if he
was at home, the servant, in return, asked what he wanted.
"I want to tell him something."
"But I can't go and trouble him with such a message as that."
"He told me to come to him--that is, when I could read--and I can."
"How am I to know that?"
Diamond stared with astonishment for one moment, then answered:
"Why, I've just told you. That's how you know it."
But this man was made of coarser grain than the policeman,
and, instead of seeing that Diamond could not tell a lie,
he put his answer down as impudence, and saying, "Do you
think I'm going to take your word for it?" shut the door in his face.
Diamond turned and sat down on the doorstep, thinking with himself
that the tall gentleman must either come in or come out, and he
was therefore in the best possible position for finding him.
He had not waited long before the door opened again; but when he
looked round, it was only the servant once more.
"Get, away" he said. "What are you doing on the doorstep?"
"Waiting for Mr. Raymond," answered Diamond, getting up.
"He's not at home."
"Then I'll wait till he comes," returned Diamond, sitting down again
with a smile.
What the man would have done next I do not know, but a step
sounded from the hall, and when Diamond looked round yet again,
there was the tall gentleman.
"Who's this, John?" he asked.
"I don't know, sir. An imperent little boy as will sit on the doorstep."
"Please sir" said Diamond, "he told me you weren't at home, and I
sat down to wait for you."
"Eh, what!" said Mr. Raymond. "John! John! This won't do.
Is it a habit of yours to turn away my visitors? There'll be some
one else to turn away, I'm afraid, if I find any more of this kind
of thing. Come in, my little man. I suppose you've come to claim
your sixpence?"
"No, sir, not that."
"What! can't you read yet?"
"Yes, I can now, a little. But I'll come for that next time.
I came to tell you about Sal's Nanny."
"Who's Sal's Nanny?"
"The girl at the crossing you talked to the same day."
"Oh, yes; I remember. What's the matter? Has she got run over?"
Then Diamond told him all.
Now Mr. Raymond was one of the kindest men in London. He sent at
once to have the horse put to the brougham, took Diamond with him,
and drove to the Children's Hospital. There he was well known
to everybody, for he was not only a large subscriber, but he used
to go and tell the children stories of an afternoon. One of the
doctors promised to go and find Nanny, and do what could be done--
have her brought to the hospital, if possible.
That same night they sent a litter for her, and as she could
be of no use to old Sal until she was better, she did not object
to having her removed. So she was soon lying in the fever ward--
for the first time in her life in a nice clean bed. But she knew
nothing of the whole affair. She was too ill to know anything.
CHAPTER XXII
MR. RAYMOND'S RIDDLE
MR. RAYMOND took Diamond home with him, stopping at the Mews
to tell his mother that he would send him back soon. Diamond ran
in with the message himself, and when he reappeared he had in his
hand the torn and crumpled book which North Wind had given him.
"Ah! I see," said Mr. Raymond: "you are going to claim your
sixpence now."
"I wasn't thinking of that so much as of another thing," said Diamond.
"There's a rhyme in this book I can't quite understand. I want you
to tell me what it means, if you please."
"I will if I can," answered Mr. Raymond. "You shall read it to me
when we get home, and then I shall see."
Still with a good many blunders, Diamond did read it after a fashion.
Mr. Raymond took the little book and read it over again.
Now Mr. Raymond was a poet himself, and so, although he had never
been at the back of the north wind, he was able to understand the
poem pretty well. But before saying anything about it, he read it
over aloud, and Diamond thought he understood it much better already.
"I'll tell you what I think it means," he then said. "It means
that people may have their way for a while, if they like, but it
will get them into such troubles they'll wish they hadn't had it."
"I know, I know!" said Diamond. "Like the poor cabman next door.
He drinks too much."
"Just so," returned Mr. Raymond. "But when people want to do right,
things about them will try to help them. Only they must kill
the snake, you know."
"I was sure the snake had something to do with it,"
cried Diamond triumphantly.
A good deal more talk followed, and Mr. Raymond gave Diamond
his sixpence.
"What will you do with it?" he asked.
"Take it home to my mother," he answered. "She has a teapot--
such a black one!--with a broken spout, and she keeps all her money
in it. It ain't much; but she saves it up to buy shoes for me.
And there's baby coming on famously, and he'll want shoes soon.
And every sixpence is something--ain't it, sir?"
"To be sure, my man. I hope you'll always make as good a use
of your money."
"I hope so, sir," said Diamond.
"And here's a book for you, full of pictures and stories and poems.
I wrote it myself, chiefly for the children of the hospital where
I hope Nanny is going. I don't mean I printed it, you know.
I made it," added Mr. Raymond, wishing Diamond to understand that he
was the author of the book.
"I know what you mean. I make songs myself. They're awfully silly,
but they please baby, and that's all they're meant for."
"Couldn't you let me hear one of them now?" said Mr. Raymond.
"No, sir, I couldn't. I forget them as soon as I've done with them.
Besides, I couldn't make a line without baby on my knee. We make
them together, you know. They're just as much baby's as mine.
It's he that pulls them out of me."
"I suspect the child's a genius," said the poet to himself,
"and that's what makes people think him silly."
Now if any of my child readers want to know what a genius is--
shall I try to tell them, or shall I not? I will give them one
very short answer: it means one who understands things without
any other body telling him what they mean. God makes a few such
now and then to teach the rest of us.
"Do you like riddles?" asked Mr. Raymond, turning over the leaves
of his own book.
"I don't know what a riddle is," said Diamond.
"It's something that means something else, and you've got to find
out what the something else is."
Mr. Raymond liked the old-fashionedriddle best, and had written a few--
one of which he now read.
I have only one foot, but thousands of toes;
My one foot stands, but never goes.
I have many arms, and they're mighty all;
And hundreds of fingers, large and small.
From the ends of my fingers my beauty grows.
I breathe with my hair, and I drink with my toes.
I grow bigger and bigger about the waist,
And yet I am always very tight laced.
None e'er saw me eat -- I've no mouth to bite;
Yet I eat all day in the full sunlight.
"Oh, no! please not," said Diamond. "They might think I was going
to meddle with them, and I ain't, you know."
"Well, do as you please," said the man, and gave him full directions.
Diamond set off, never suspecting that the policeman, who was a
kind-hearted man, with children of his own, was following him close,
and watching him round every corner. As he went on, all at once
he thought he remembered the place, and whether it really was so,
or only that he had laid up the policeman's instructions well in
his mind, he went straight for the cellar of old Sal.
"He's a sharp little kid, anyhow, for as simple as he looks,"
said the man to himself. "Not a wrong turn does he take!
But old Sal's a rum un for such a child to pay a morning visit to.
She's worse when she's sober than when she's half drunk. I've seen
her when she'd have torn him in pieces."
Happily then for Diamond, old Sal had gone out to get some gin.
When he came to her door at the bottom of the area-stair and knocked,
he received no answer. He laid his ear to the door, and thought he heard
a moaning within. So he tried the door, and found it was not locked!
It was a dreary place indeed,--and very dark, for the window was below
the level of the street, and covered with mud, while over the grating
which kept people from falling into the area, stood a chest of drawers,
placed there by a dealer in second-hand furniture, which shut out
almost all the light. And the smell in the place was dreadful.
Diamond stood still for a while, for he could see next to nothing,
but he heard the moaning plainly enough now, When he got used
to the darkness, he discovered his friend lying with closed eyes
and a white suffering face on a heap of little better than rags in
a corner of the den. He went up to her and spoke; but she made him
no answer. Indeed, she was not in the least aware of his presence,
and Diamond saw that he could do nothing for her without help.
So taking a lump of barley-sugar from his pocket, which he had bought
for her as he came along, and laying it beside her, he left the place,
having already made up his mind to go and see the tall gentleman,
Mr. Raymond, and ask him to do something for Sal's Nanny, as the girl
was called.
By the time he got up the area-steps, three or four women who had
seen him go down were standing together at the top waiting for him.
They wanted his clothes for their children; but they did not follow
him down lest Sal should find them there. The moment he appeared,
they laid their hands on him, and all began talking at once,
for each wanted to get some advantage over her neighbours.
He told them quite quietly, for he was not frightened, that he
had come to see what was the matter with Nanny.
"What do you know about Nanny?" said one of them fiercely. "Wait till
old Sal comes home, and you'll catch it, for going prying into her
house when she's out. If you don't give me your jacket directly,
I'll go and fetch her."
"I can't give you my jacket," said Diamond. "It belongs to my
father and mother, you know. It's not mine to give. Is it now?
You would not think it right to give away what wasn't yours--
would you now?"
"Give it away! No, that I wouldn't; I'd keep it," she said,
with a rough laugh. "But if the jacket ain't yours, what right have
you to keep it? Here, Cherry, make haste. It'll be one go apiece."
They all began to tug at the jacket, while Diamond stooped and kept
his arms bent to resist them. Before they had done him or the jacket
any harm, however, suddenly they all scampered away; and Diamond,
looking in the opposite direction, saw the tall policeman coming
towards him.
"You had better have let me come with you, little man," he said,
looking down in Diamond's face, which was flushed with his resistance.
"You came just in the right time, thank you," returned Diamond.
"They've done me no harm."
"They would have if I hadn't been at hand, though."
"Yes; but you were at hand, you know, so they couldn't."
Perhaps the answer was deeper in purport than either Diamond
or the policeman knew. They walked away together, Diamond telling
his new friend how ill poor Nanny was, and that he was going to let
the tall gentleman know. The policeman put him in the nearest way
for Bloomsbury, and stepping out in good earnest, Diamond reached
Mr. Raymond's door in less than an hour. When he asked if he
was at home, the servant, in return, asked what he wanted.
"I want to tell him something."
"But I can't go and trouble him with such a message as that."
"He told me to come to him--that is, when I could read--and I can."
"How am I to know that?"
Diamond stared with astonishment for one moment, then answered:
"Why, I've just told you. That's how you know it."
But this man was made of coarser grain than the policeman,
and, instead of seeing that Diamond could not tell a lie,
he put his answer down as impudence, and saying, "Do you
think I'm going to take your word for it?" shut the door in his face.
Diamond turned and sat down on the doorstep, thinking with himself
that the tall gentleman must either come in or come out, and he
was therefore in the best possible position for finding him.
He had not waited long before the door opened again; but when he
looked round, it was only the servant once more.
"Get, away" he said. "What are you doing on the doorstep?"
"Waiting for Mr. Raymond," answered Diamond, getting up.
"He's not at home."
"Then I'll wait till he comes," returned Diamond, sitting down again
with a smile.
What the man would have done next I do not know, but a step
sounded from the hall, and when Diamond looked round yet again,
there was the tall gentleman.
"Who's this, John?" he asked.
"I don't know, sir. An imperent little boy as will sit on the doorstep."
"Please sir" said Diamond, "he told me you weren't at home, and I
sat down to wait for you."
"Eh, what!" said Mr. Raymond. "John! John! This won't do.
Is it a habit of yours to turn away my visitors? There'll be some
one else to turn away, I'm afraid, if I find any more of this kind
of thing. Come in, my little man. I suppose you've come to claim
your sixpence?"
"No, sir, not that."
"What! can't you read yet?"
"Yes, I can now, a little. But I'll come for that next time.
I came to tell you about Sal's Nanny."
"Who's Sal's Nanny?"
"The girl at the crossing you talked to the same day."
"Oh, yes; I remember. What's the matter? Has she got run over?"
Then Diamond told him all.
Now Mr. Raymond was one of the kindest men in London. He sent at
once to have the horse put to the brougham, took Diamond with him,
and drove to the Children's Hospital. There he was well known
to everybody, for he was not only a large subscriber, but he used
to go and tell the children stories of an afternoon. One of the
doctors promised to go and find Nanny, and do what could be done--
have her brought to the hospital, if possible.
That same night they sent a litter for her, and as she could
be of no use to old Sal until she was better, she did not object
to having her removed. So she was soon lying in the fever ward--
for the first time in her life in a nice clean bed. But she knew
nothing of the whole affair. She was too ill to know anything.
CHAPTER XXII
MR. RAYMOND'S RIDDLE
MR. RAYMOND took Diamond home with him, stopping at the Mews
to tell his mother that he would send him back soon. Diamond ran
in with the message himself, and when he reappeared he had in his
hand the torn and crumpled book which North Wind had given him.
"Ah! I see," said Mr. Raymond: "you are going to claim your
sixpence now."
"I wasn't thinking of that so much as of another thing," said Diamond.
"There's a rhyme in this book I can't quite understand. I want you
to tell me what it means, if you please."
"I will if I can," answered Mr. Raymond. "You shall read it to me
when we get home, and then I shall see."
Still with a good many blunders, Diamond did read it after a fashion.
Mr. Raymond took the little book and read it over again.
Now Mr. Raymond was a poet himself, and so, although he had never
been at the back of the north wind, he was able to understand the
poem pretty well. But before saying anything about it, he read it
over aloud, and Diamond thought he understood it much better already.
"I'll tell you what I think it means," he then said. "It means
that people may have their way for a while, if they like, but it
will get them into such troubles they'll wish they hadn't had it."
"I know, I know!" said Diamond. "Like the poor cabman next door.
He drinks too much."
"Just so," returned Mr. Raymond. "But when people want to do right,
things about them will try to help them. Only they must kill
the snake, you know."
"I was sure the snake had something to do with it,"
cried Diamond triumphantly.
A good deal more talk followed, and Mr. Raymond gave Diamond
his sixpence.
"What will you do with it?" he asked.
"Take it home to my mother," he answered. "She has a teapot--
such a black one!--with a broken spout, and she keeps all her money
in it. It ain't much; but she saves it up to buy shoes for me.
And there's baby coming on famously, and he'll want shoes soon.
And every sixpence is something--ain't it, sir?"
"To be sure, my man. I hope you'll always make as good a use
of your money."
"I hope so, sir," said Diamond.
"And here's a book for you, full of pictures and stories and poems.
I wrote it myself, chiefly for the children of the hospital where
I hope Nanny is going. I don't mean I printed it, you know.
I made it," added Mr. Raymond, wishing Diamond to understand that he
was the author of the book.
"I know what you mean. I make songs myself. They're awfully silly,
but they please baby, and that's all they're meant for."
"Couldn't you let me hear one of them now?" said Mr. Raymond.
"No, sir, I couldn't. I forget them as soon as I've done with them.
Besides, I couldn't make a line without baby on my knee. We make
them together, you know. They're just as much baby's as mine.
It's he that pulls them out of me."
"I suspect the child's a genius," said the poet to himself,
"and that's what makes people think him silly."
Now if any of my child readers want to know what a genius is--
shall I try to tell them, or shall I not? I will give them one
very short answer: it means one who understands things without
any other body telling him what they mean. God makes a few such
now and then to teach the rest of us.
"Do you like riddles?" asked Mr. Raymond, turning over the leaves
of his own book.
"I don't know what a riddle is," said Diamond.
"It's something that means something else, and you've got to find
out what the something else is."
Mr. Raymond liked the old-fashionedriddle best, and had written a few--
one of which he now read.
I have only one foot, but thousands of toes;
My one foot stands, but never goes.
I have many arms, and they're mighty all;
And hundreds of fingers, large and small.
From the ends of my fingers my beauty grows.
I breathe with my hair, and I drink with my toes.
I grow bigger and bigger about the waist,
And yet I am always very tight laced.
None e'er saw me eat -- I've no mouth to bite;
Yet I eat all day in the full sunlight.
- policeman [pə´li:smən]
n.警察 (初中英语单词) - cellar [´selə] n.地窑，地下室 (初中英语单词)
- dealer [´di:lə] n.商人 (初中英语单词)
- second-hand [,sekənd´hænd] a.用过的；间接的 (初中英语单词)
- plainly [´pleinli] ad.平坦地；简单地 (初中英语单词)
- suffering [´sʌfəriŋ] n.痛苦；灾害 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- advantage [əd´vɑ:ntidʒ] n.优势；利益 (初中英语单词)
- fiercely [´fiəsli] ad.凶猛地，残忍地 (初中英语单词)
- jacket [´dʒækit] n.茄克衫；外套 (初中英语单词)
- resist [ri´zist] v.抵抗；对抗；抵制 (初中英语单词)
- earnest [´ə:nist] a.认真的 n.认真；诚恳 (初中英语单词)
- astonishment [ə´stɔniʃmənt] n.吃惊；惊异 (初中英语单词)
- therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)
- chiefly [´tʃi:fli] ad.主要地；尤其 (初中英语单词)
- suspect [´sʌspekt, sə´spekt] v.怀疑；觉得 n.嫌疑犯 (初中英语单词)
- genius [´dʒi:niəs] n.天才(人物)；天赋 (初中英语单词)
- old-fashioned [´əuld´feʃənd] a.老式的；过时的 (初中英语单词)
- sunlight [´sʌnlait] n.日光 (初中英语单词)
- meddle [´medl] vi.干涉(预)；乱弄 (高中英语单词)
- dreary [´driəri] a.阴郁的；枯燥无味的 (高中英语单词)
- cherry [´tʃeri] n.樱桃(树) (高中英语单词)
- seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
- saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
- finding [´faindiŋ] n.发现物；判断；结果 (高中英语单词)
- litter [´litə] n.杂乱 v.乱丢 (高中英语单词)
- awfully [´ɔ:fuli] ad.令人畏惧地 (高中英语单词)
- riddle [´ridl] n.谜(语) v.解(谜等) (高中英语单词)
- mighty [´maiti] a.强有力的 ad.很 (高中英语单词)
- subscriber [səb´skraibə] n.捐款人；预约者 (英语四级单词)
- sixpence [´sikspəns] n.六便士(硬币) (英语四级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- purport [´pə:pɔ:t, -pət] n.意义 vt.意味着 (英语六级单词)
- doorstep [´dɔ:step] n.门阶 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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