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A Nervous Man
Framton Nuttel was very tired and nervous. The doctors
told him he needed a rest and said he should go somewhere
peaceful. So he decided to spend some time in the country.
'I know what you are like, Framton,' his sister said. 'When
you go to the country, you will stay all alone. That's not good
for you. You should not stay all alone. You should meet some
nice people. I was in that part of the country four years ago. I
met some nice people. I will write you some letters of
introduction, and you can meet them.'
'I am not sure that is a good idea,' objected Framton.
'Maybe I shouldn't. After all, I don't know any of those people.'
'Take my advice,' replied Framton's sister. 'It will be good
for you.'
So Framton went to the country with his sister's letters of
introduction. The first person he visited was Mrs Sappleton. He
knocked at the door of Mrs Sappleton's house and a young girl
about fifteen years old opened the door. It was Mrs Sappleton's
niece. Her name was Vera.
'My aunt will be down in a moment, Mr Nuttel,' said the
girl, who looked very mature and intelligent. 'While you are
waiting, I will try to entertain you. I hope you don't mind.'
'Oh, I will be happy to talk with you,' replied Framton. He
did not want to offend the girl. But he wondered if going to
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meet new people was really good for his health. In fact, he felt
quite nervous, and he hoped that Mrs Sappleton was nice.
'Do you know many of the people round here?' asked Mrs
Sappleton's niece after a few minutes of silence.
'No,' replied Framton, 'I don't know anybody around here.
My sister stayed here four years ago and she gave me some
letters of introduction to some of the people here.'
Framton felt more and more nervous, and he was more
and more convinced that it was a bad idea. He needed rest, not
new friends.
'Then you know practically nothing about my aunt?'
continued the confident young lady.
'I know only her name and address,' admitted Framton.
He was wondering whether Mrs Sappleton's husband was alive
or dead. Looking at the room, he thought that a man must live
there.
'My aunt's great tragedy happened exactly three years
ago,' said the girl. 'That was after your sister was here.'
'Your aunt's tragedy?' asked Framton. He thought the
country was very peaceful. He could not imagine a tragedy
there.
'You probably wonder why we keep that window open on
a cool October evening,' said Vera. In fact, behind Framton's
chair there was a large French window that opened on to a
lawn.
'It is very warm for this time of the year.' said Framton.
'But is that window connected with the tragedy?'
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CHAPTER TWO
Mental Excitement
'I hope you don't mind the open window,' said Mrs
Sappleton quickly. 'My husband and my brothers will be back
from hunting soon. They always come into the house through
that window.
Today they went to the bogs to hunt for snipe. When they
come home I am sure they will make a mess of everything. You
know what men are like!'
Mrs Sappleton continued to talk about hunting. She told
Framton that there were not many snipes that year. She said
that she hoped there would be a lot of ducks in November. To
Framton it was all completely horrible. While he tried
desperately to change the topic of conversation, he was
conscious that Mrs Sappleton only gave him part of her
attention. She continued to look past him out the window.
'Obviously she's looking for her dead husband and
brothers,' Framton thought. 'What a terrible time to visit her,
today, the anniversary of their death.'
To change the topic of conversation he started talking
about his bad health.
'The doctors,' he said, 'told me to rest. I should avoid
mental excitement, and I should avoid all physical activity.
They did not, however, tell me what I should eat.'
'Oh? That is very interesting,' said Mrs Sappleton, who
was obviously not really interested at all. In fact, she almost
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spend the night in a newly dug grave. The dogs growled and
snarled above him for the entire night. So you can understand
why he is so afraid of dogs.'
Inventing fantastic stories was Vera's speciality.
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THE PENANCE
CHAPTER ONE
The Beast
Octavian Ruttle was an active, friendly person. He liked
people and it was important to him that people liked him. For
example, there were three children who lived in the house next
to his. Octavian thought that he should know their names, their
birthdays and their favourite toys. But he only knew that their
parents lived in India, and that they lived with their aunt and
uncle. Occasionally, Octavian saw that the three children were
looking down from the wall that divided the two properties.
They never said anything; they just watched carefully
everything he did.
Octavian was a farmer. He had pigs, chickens, and other
animals. One day Octavian looked in the chicken coop and
found some blood and feathers. Some animal had killed one of
his chickens. More and more chickens were killed. Octavian
looked carefully for the animal that was killing his chickens.
One day he saw a cat walking around the coop. He was
sure that the cat was the killer. Unfortunately, the cat belonged
to the three children. Octavian went to the children's house, and
explained his problem to their uncle. The uncle agreed that the
cat had to be killed. 'The children will be upset but you don't
have to tell them,' was the uncle's last word on the matter.
The next day, Octavian waited for the cat. When it arrived
he shot at it with his hunting rifle - and missed it. The cat tried
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him. Then Octavian noticed that here and there in the grass
were pieces of chocolate and their shiny wrappers. It looked
like a greedy child's paradise.
The children had thrown his presents back at him.
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CHAPTER TWO
Un-Beast
Octavian felt even worse when he found more blood and
feathers in the coop. Apparently, the cat was innocent; some
other animal was the real killer. The cat had probably come
near the coop looking for rats. The children learned from the
servants that the real killer was not their cat, and one day
Octavian found a piece of paper on which was written: 'Beast.
Rats eaten your chickens.' Now more than ever he wished to
find some way to make peace with the children.
One day he had an inspiration. His two-year-old daughter
Olivia usually spent a couple of hours with him while her
nursemaid ate lunch. About the same time the children
appeared on the wall. Octavian walked with Olivia near the
wall and he saw that the children seemed very interested.
'My Olivia,' thought Octavian, 'will be able to succeed
where I have failed.'
He brought Olivia a large yellow dahlia. Then he looked
up at the children on the wall and asked, 'Do you like flowers?'
They nodded their heads solemnly.
'Which do you like best?' he asked.
'Those with all the colours, over there,' answered the
children, pointing to a group of sweet peas at the other end of
the garden. Octavian ran happily to get the flowers for the
children. He pulled up lots and lots of flowers of all different
colours, and then he returned to the wall to give them to the
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children. But there was no one on the wall. The children had
gone, and, what is more, Olivia had gone too.
Down in the meadow, the three children were pushing a
go-cart very fast towards the pigsties; it was Olivia's go-cart
and she was on it. Octavian stared for a moment at the rapidly
moving group, and then started to run after them. When he
arrived at the pigsties he saw the children climbing on the roof
with Olivia. They were old buildings and could not support
Octavian's weight.
'What are you going to do with her?' he shouted. It was
obvious from the expression on their faces that they were going
to do something bad.
'We are going to cook her over a fire,' said one of the boys
who had obviously read English history.
'Throw her down and the pigs will eat all of her except
the palms of her hands,' said the other boy, who had obviously
read Biblical history.
The last proposal alarmed Octavian the most. He had
heard of cases where pigs had eaten small children.
'You wouldn't do such a horrible thing to my little Olivia?'
he shouted.
'You killed our little cat,' replied the children.
'I'm very sorry that I did,' said Octavian.
'We will be very sorry when we kill Olivia,' said the girl,
'but we can't be sorry until we have killed her.'
Before Octavian could think of an answer to this childlogic, he saw Olivia fall from the roof into the muck below. He
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went quickly over the wall of the pigsty to rescue his daughter
but found himself trapped in the muck. He could hardly move.
At first Olivia was almost happy to be in the slippery muck.
But when she began to sink she realised that she was not at all
happy, and she began to cry. Octavian battled with the muck,
but he could not move.
'I can't reach her in time,' he shouted. 'She'll die in the
muck. Won't you help her?'
'No one helped our cat,' the children reminded him.
'I'll do anything to show you that I am really and truly
sorry,' cried Octavian.
'Will you stand wearing only your white shirt by the cat's
grave?'
'Yes,' screamed Octavian.
'Holding a candle?' asked one of the boys.
'And saying, 'I'm a miserable Beast'?' asked the girl.
'Yes, yes!' answered Octavian.
'For a long, long time?' asked the girl.
'For half an hour,' said Octavian anxiously. He had read
that a German king had done penance by standing outside in
only his shirt for five days and five nights at Christmas-time.
Fortunately, the children had not read any German history and
half an hour seemed like enough time to them. They threw
down a ladder and Octavian was able to save Olivia.
That evening he went to the oak tree where the cat was
buried. He was wearing only a shirt. In one hand he had a
candle, and in the other hand he had a watch. He stood there for
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MORLVERA
CHAPTER ONE
The Adventuress
The Olympic Toy Emporium had a large shop window in
an important West End street. No one called it the more
familiar and exciting name of toyshop. Its toys were incredible
but not toys that children really liked. For example, the animal
toys looked like scientific models and not friendly companions
to take to bed.
One of the dolls in the window looked like a model in a
fashion magazine. She wore a skirt and leopard-skin
accessories.
Unlike a model in a fashion magazine, this doll had a
terrible expression on her face. She seemed to have a really
horrible character and you could imagine hundreds of stories
about her in which she had unworthy ambitions and a great
desire for money.
As a matter of fact, two poor children, Emmeline, aged
ten and Bert, aged seven, had stopped on their way to St
James's Park. They did not like her much because she was rich
and they were poor, and because she had such a terrible
expression on her face. Emmeline gave the doll a terrible
reputation; she got her ideas from the conversations of her
mother's friends about romantic novels.
'She is a bad one,' declared Emmeline, 'and her husband
hates her.'
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CHAPTER TWO
Revenge
At that moment, a motor car with servants drove up to the
emporium. A large lady and a sulky little boy stepped out. He
was wearing a very white sailor suit.
'Now Victor,' said the lady, 'come and buy a nice doll for
your cousin Bertha. She gave you a beautiful box of soldiers on
your birthday, and you must give her a present on hers.'
'Bertha is a fat little fool,' said the little boy loudly.
'Victor,' said his mother, 'you shouldn't say such things.
Bertha is not a fool, and she is not fat. You must come in and
choose a doll for her.'
They then walked into the shop.
'He is in a bad temper,' exclaimed Emmeline. However,
she and Bert believed him when he said that his cousin was fat
and foolish.
'I want to see some dolls,' said the mother to the shop
assistant. 'It's for a girl of eleven.'
'A fat little girl of eleven,' added Victor.
'Victor, if you say such rude things about your cousin, you
will go to bed the moment we get home, without tea.'
'This is one of the newest dolls,' said the assistant, taking
Morlvera out of the shop window. 'You won't find anything
newer anywhere. It's an exclusive design.'
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His mother got into the motor car and gave directions to
the driver, and Victor got in beside her, holding the elegantly
dressed doll.
The driver started moving the car back a little bit in order
to turn around. Very secretly, very gently, very mercilessly,
Victor threw the doll over his shoulder and it fell just behind
one of the wheels.
The car went over the doll and made a crunching sound as
it broke. Then the car moved forward making another
crunching sound. The motor car drove away, and Bert and
Emmeline looked with scared delight at the mess of dirty
clothes, sawdust and leopard skin, which was all that remained
of the hateful Morlvera. They cheered happily and ran away
from the scene of the tragedy.
Later that afternoon in St James's Park, Emmeline said
seriously to Bert, 'I've been thinking. Do you know who he
was? He was the little boy that she had sent away to live with
poor people. He came back and did that to her.'
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SREDNI VASHTAR
CHAPTER ONE
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CHAPTER TWO
Teast
The next day at breakfast Mrs De Ropp turned to
Conradin and said, 'Yesterday the gardener took your hen away
and sold it.'
She waited for him to say something, to become angry;
then she could explain why the chicken was taken away 'for his
good'. But Conradin said nothing.
Perhaps Mrs De Ropp felt a little guilty because at tea
that afternoon there was toast on the table. Normally Conradin
was not permitted to eat toast, even though it was his favourite
food. This time, however, he did not eat the toast.
'I thought you liked toast,' she said.
'Sometimes,' said Conradin.
In the shed that evening he changed his manner of
worshipping the ferret. Before this, he had only praised his
god; now he asked it for a favour.
'Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar.'
The thing was not specified. But Sredni Vashtar was a
god, and so he knew. Conradin looked at the place where the
chicken had lived and almost cried. Then he went back to the
world he hated.
And every night in the darkness of his bedroom and every
evening in the shed Conradin said the same thing: 'Do one
thing for me, Sredni Vashtar.'
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TOBERMORY
CHAPTER ONE
A Great Discovery
Lady Blemley knew that her house-party was going to be
difficult to organise because it would continue for several days
and the guests would have to sleep in her large house. She
always tried to invite guests who were talented and
entertaining. Some people were invited because they were good
at playing cards, others because they were good at acting, and
others because they were good at playing the piano. After all, it
was difficult to entertain guests for three or four days. To this
particular house-party Lady Blemley invited Cornelius Appin.
People said that he was clever; and, in fact, Cornelius seemed
like the name of a clever man. But when he was at the party
Lady Blemley could not understand why people thought he
was clever. He said very little.
One afternoon it was raining and all the guests were in the
living room.
Cornelius Appin said, 'I have made the most important
scientific discovery in the history of the world. I have worked
on this particular problem for many years.'
'What is this fantastic discovery?' asked Sir Wilfrid,
another one of Lady Blemley's guests.
'I have taught animals how to speak our language,'
explained Cornelius.
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Sir Wilfrid left the room and went to look for the cat.
Everyone began to think that Cornelius was a good
ventriloquist. They waited for this interesting show of
ventriloquism to begin.
A minute later, Sir Wilfrid came back in the room. His
face was white. He was obviously very excited.
'It's true! It's true!' he shouted.
The other guests could see that Sir Wilfrid was telling the
truth and they asked him what had happened.
'Well, I found Tobermory sleeping on a chair in the
smoking-room. I told him to come to the living room
immediately. He opened his eyes slowly and looked at me.
'Then he said, 'I'll come when I want to. Now, go away!' I
almost fainted!'
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CHAPTER TWO
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THE INTERLOPERS
CHAPTER ONE
Enemies
One winter night a man stood in a forest in the Carpathian
Mountains. He was carrying a rifle and it seemed that he was
waiting and listening for some wild animal. But Ulrich von
Gradwitz was looking for a human enemy.
Ulrich had a lot of land. This land was full of all different
kinds of wild animals, but he always guarded carefully one
particular area of this land. It was mountainous and not many
animals lived there. So why did Ulrich guard this land so
carefully?
Many years ago Ulrich's grandfather and a neighbour,
Heinrich Znaeym, had both wanted the same portion of land.
They went to court and Ulrich's grandfather won the case.
Heinrich Znaeym, however, did not accept the court's decision;
he continued to hunt on the land. The two families began
fighting. Ulrich and Heinrich Znaeym's grandson, Georg, hated
each other passionately. When they were boys they wanted to
kill each other. Now they were men, and they each wanted the
other to suffer.
This night Ulrich and his forest guards were out looking
for Georg and his men. It was a stormy night and the wind was
strong. Ulrich saw deer running from the contested area of
land. Normally, during a storm deer stay in one place, so he
knew that his enemy was near.
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CHAPTER TWO
Friends
Now the two men had stopped trying to get free. Ulrich
tried with his partially free arm to pull out his wine-flask. After
a few minutes he finally succeeded. Then after another few
minutes he succeeded in pulling off the stopper. He drank a
little. It was truly wonderful. In this cold weather the wine
warmed his body. Then he looked with pity at Georg, who was
fighting not to scream in pain.
'Can you reach the flask if I throw it to you?' Ulrich asked
suddenly. 'There's good wine in it and there's no reason why we
should suffer. Let us drink, even if tonight one of us dies.'
'No, I can't see anything because I have dried blood on
my eyes,' said Georg. 'And in any case I don't drink wine with
an enemy.' Ulrich was silent for a few minutes, listening to the
sound of the wind. An idea was gradually formulating in his
brain. This idea grew clearer every time he looked at Georg
fighting against his pain. In the pain that Ulrich was feeling the
old hate was beginning to die.
'Neighbour,' Ulrich said, 'you can do what you want if
your men come first. It was a fair agreement. But I've changed
my mind. If my men come first, they will help you first, as
though you were my guest. We have fought all our lives over
this stupid portion of forest. Tonight lying here thinking, I have
come to the conclusion that we have been fools. What is so
important about this portion of forest? Neighbour, if you help
me end this fight, I'll ask you to be my friend.'
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- THE END -
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