登陆注册
15455600000001

第1章 CHAPTER 1(1)

THE COUNCIL OF WAYS AND MEANS

This is the story of the different ways we looked for treasure, and I think when you have read it you will see that we were not lazy about the looking.

There are some things I must tell before I begin to tell about the treasure-seeking, because I have read books myself, and I know how beastly it is when a story begins, "'Alas!" said Hildegarde with a deep sigh, "we must look our last on this ancestral home"' - and then some one else says something - and you don't know for pages and pages where the home is, or who Hildegarde is, or anything about it. Our ancestral home is in the Lewisham Road. It is semi-detached and has a garden, not a large one. We are the Bastables. There are six of us besides Father. Our Mother is dead, and if you think we don't care because I don't tell you much about her you only show that you do not understand people at all.

Dora is the eldest. Then Oswald - and then Dicky. Oswald won the Latin prize at his preparatory school - and Dicky is good at sums.

Alice and Noel are twins: they are ten, and Horace Octavius is my youngest brother. It is one of us that tells this story - but I shall not tell you which: only at the very end perhaps I will.

While the story is going on you may be trying to guess, only I bet you don't. It was Oswald who first thought of looking for treasure. Oswald often thinks of very interesting things. And directly he thought of it he did not keep it to himself, as some boys would have done, but he told the others, and said -'I'll tell you what, we must go and seek for treasure: it is always what you do to restore the fallen fortunes of your House.'

Dora said it was all very well. She often says that. She was trying to mend a large hole in one of Noel's stockings. He tore it on a nail when we were playing shipwrecked mariners on top of the chicken-house the day H. O. fell off and cut his chin: he has the scar still. Dora is the only one of us who ever tries to mend anything. Alice tries to make things sometimes. Once she knitted a red scarf for Noel because his chest is delicate, but it was much wider at one end than the other, and he wouldn't wear it. So we used it as a pennon, and it did very well, because most of our things are black or grey since Mother died; and scarlet was a nice change. Father does not like you to ask for new things. That was one way we had of knowing that the fortunes of the ancient House of Bastable were really fallen. Another way was that there was no more pocket-money - except a penny now and then to the little ones, and people did not come to dinner any more, like they used to, with pretty dresses, driving up in cabs - and the carpets got holes in them - and when the legs came off things they were not sent to be mended, and we gave UP having the gardener except for the front garden, and not that very often. And the silver in the big oak plate-chest that is lined with green baize all went away to the shop to have the dents and scratches taken out of it, and it never came back. We think Father hadn't enough money to pay the silver man for taking out the dents and scratches. The new spoons and forks were yellowy-white, and not so heavy as the old ones, and they never shone after the first day or two.

Father was very ill after Mother died; and while he was ill his business-partner went to Spain - and there was never much money afterwards. I don't know why. Then the servants left and there was only one, a General. A great deal of your comfort and happiness depends on having a good General. The last but one was nice: she used to make jolly good currant puddings for us, and let us have the dish on the floor and pretend it was a wild boar we were killing with our forks. But the General we have now nearly always makes sago puddings, and they are the watery kind, and you cannot pretend anything with them, not even islands, like you do with porridge.

Then we left off going to school, and Father said we should go to a good school as soon as he could manage it. He said a holiday would do us all good. We thought he was right, but we wished he had told us he couldn't afford it. For of course we knew.

Then a great many people used to come to the door with envelopes with no stamps on them, and sometimes they got very angry, and said they were calling for the last time before putting it in other hands. I asked Eliza what that meant, and she kindly explained to me, and I was so sorry for Father.

And once a long, blue paper came; a policeman brought it, and we were so frightened. But Father said it was all right, only when he went up to kiss the girls after they were in bed they said he had been crying, though I'm sure that's not true. Because only cowards and snivellers cry, and my Father is the bravest man in the world.

So you see it was time we looked for treasure and Oswald said so, and Dora said it was all very well. But the others agreed with Oswald. So we held a council. Dora was in the chair - the big dining-room chair, that we let the fireworks off from, the Fifth of November when we had the measles and couldn't do it in the garden.

The hole has never been mended, so now we have that chair in the nursery, and I think it was cheap at the blowing-up we boys got when the hole was burnt.

'We must do something,' said Alice, 'because the exchequer is empty.' She rattled the money-box as she spoke, and it really did rattle because we always keep the bad sixpence in it for luck.

'Yes - but what shall we do?' said Dicky. 'It's so jolly easy to say let's do something.' Dicky always wants everything settled exactly. Father calls him the Definite Article.

'Let's read all the books again. We shall get lots of ideas out of them.' It was Noel who suggested this, but we made him shut up, because we knew well enough he only wanted to get back to his old books. Noel is a poet. He sold some of his poetry once - and it was printed, but that does not come in this part of the story.

同类推荐
  • 大悲启请

    大悲启请

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • THE HEART OF MID-LOTHIAN

    THE HEART OF MID-LOTHIAN

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 是应篇

    是应篇

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 泊宅编

    泊宅编

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • You Never Can Tell

    You Never Can Tell

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 星际12138

    星际12138

    台风娱乐是一家因打造了风靡全国的偶像组合台风21而一举成名,这家名不见经传的娱乐公司借此机会也准备大举布局国内娱乐市场,一场娱乐圈的腥风血雨眼看着就要被台风娱乐给席卷,但是突然有一天,他们居然变小了。而他们变小的原因是因为在一次吃工作午餐的时候,误吃了一份宫保鸡丁,就在台风娱乐快要破产之际,一个人的出现让宫保鸡丁的事情真相大白,此时的黄老板还不知道台风娱乐的灾难才刚刚开始。在开普勒星球的总指挥室里,精卫传来了囚犯毕方逃脱了的消息,白泽博士怀疑毕方去找身处地球的烛龙,可万万没想到烛龙被毕方所利用,在地球即将展开一场星际阴谋,白泽博士觉得毕方一定不简单,于是委托已经回到莱娅星球的落落调查毕方。
  • 呼吸不到的爱情

    呼吸不到的爱情

    携一朵黑色曼陀罗,她宛若一阵清香悄悄的来,她的旖旎在他的世界随风弥漫,当那朵象征复仇的花凋零,她所制造的一切美好也跟着破碎,也许她来过,也许没有,可她却已经深深烙在了他的心上,忘不掉,也不想忘。那年风雪飘荡,他牵着她的手,问:“夏泠鹭你可曾在乎过我?”她笑得一脸悲凉:“可能有,但又没有”
  • 皇上很纠结:爱妃不争

    皇上很纠结:爱妃不争

    梅廿九同学坠入古井,被人用绳子拉出来,却发现自个穿越了。英挺而冷傲的皇帝大人不屑地对她说:“梅妃,若你只有上吊、跳井的手段来吸引朕,那你最好还是省省力气吧!”嗬,这身体的主人也真够笨的,吸引男人嘛,我梅廿九可有一千零一种手段,自大皇上,你接招吧!终于,有一天,皇帝大人无意发现,以前那个娇蛮任性、不可理喻的梅妃,竟是那样一个令人爱不释手,有趣之极的人儿。他的心痒痒了。他要她侍寝,她蛾眉一挑,锦袖一扬:“臣妾身体有恙,皇上您还是移驾别处吧!”骁勇将军、温良御医、不羁王爷、江湖浪人,每一个,都是天下女人的梦想。可她如穿花蝴蝶,周旋于他们中间,片叶不沾身。皇帝大人发怒了,他觉自个脑门绿光闪闪:“梅妃,若你再敢如此不守规矩,看朕如何处置你!”她白眼一翻,樱唇一噘:“靠,处置就处置,怕你不成?!”欢迎入新坑:http://novel.hongxiu.com/a/293122/
  • 吃出苗条身材

    吃出苗条身材

    胖人很多都是吃出来的,没有节制或不加选择地饮食,往往最后都吃成了肥婆。摆脱身上赘肉、告别痴肥人生,是多少男人和女人的梦想。我们编写的这本书,就是用通俗易懂的语言,讲一讲胖人是如何吃胖的;然后告诉大家,关于如何通过饮食疗法,让自己变瘦的秘诀。需要提醒的是,减肥不是一夕之功,需要坚持不懈;失败的减肥经历,往往很多都是缺乏毅力的结果。有了科学的减肥方法,剩下的事情,就是自己持之以恒。来吧,让我们一起走进《吃出苗条身材》这本书里,看看里面都有哪些绝密宝典。
  • 紫龙诺

    紫龙诺

    一个没有亲生父母的孩子,却从一初生就有神奇的能力,有着一个玉佩。
  • 来自深渊的恐惧

    来自深渊的恐惧

    一个普通的板砖屌丝,为何莫名其妙的会有极品美女接连上门?普通的工地生活为何接连怪事不断?普通屌丝为何一一在生死线上徘徊,是宿命?还是前世所酿成的因果,欢迎进入不为人知的恐惧世界。
  • 夜之樱璃

    夜之樱璃

    “怎么?看见男朋友,还装清高吗?”眼前的超帅男票一下搂住她的小蛮腰,她一下脸红了。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。
  • 无限之大力狂徒

    无限之大力狂徒

    一个无法修炼内力的血统,一个肉身成圣的血统。一个神秘的小队,一个全员都拥有主角潜力的小队。一个逆天的传承,带来一个无敌的狂徒。
  • 逍遥御神诀

    逍遥御神诀

    一入洪荒过千年,七界逍遥浪一场。我本一介凡夫,奈何众生因缘,以妖孽之资君临七界,笑傲漫天诸神。当我那伟岸的英姿掌御天地大道,脚踏乾坤五行,来到极道边缘的时候,飘荡在我身后那亘古的星河之中的,尽是哥的传说!我是任逍遥,那个帅翻七界的第一美男,我为自己带盐!
  • 佛说了本生死经

    佛说了本生死经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。