Читать книгу The Complete Works of Algernon Blackwood. Novels, Short Stories, Horror Classics, Occult & Supernatural Tales, Plays онлайн

319 страница из 1552

'They have reports to write too, to their lumber-kings,' he said, his face solemn as a gong—using a phrase culled heaven knows where. 'So will you please see that they don't make blots either.'

'But how did you know there were such things as lumber-kings?' Paul asked, surprised.

'I didn't know. They knew,' with a jerk of his head toward the struggling puppies, who hated the elevation of the table and the proximity of Paul's bearded face. 'They said you told them.'

There was no trace of a smile in his eyes; nothing but the earnest expression of the child taking part in the ponderous make-believe of the grown-up. Paul felt that by this simple expedient his reports and the safety they represented had been reduced in a single moment to the level of a paltry pretence.

He blushed. 'Well, tell them to run after their tails more, and think less,' he said.

'All right, Uncle Paul,' and the boy was gone, grave as any judge.

And Toby, her small round face still shining like an onion skin, had a different but equally effective method of showing him that he belonged to their world in spite of his clumsy pretence. She gave him lessons in Natural History. One afternoon when a brightly-coloured creature darted across the page of his book, and he referred to it as a 'beetle,' she very smartly rebuked him.