Читать книгу Practicable Socialism, New Series онлайн
63 страница из 100
Another girl of eleven writes:—
“My lady took me to Windsor Castle. The first thing I saw was the Thames. I went and had a paddled and then I went in the Castle and saw a lot of apple trees.”
The visits to Windsor are modern-day versions of the old story of the Cat who went to see the King and saw only “Mousey sitting under the Chair,” for another child records:—
“There were plenty of orchards with apple trees in it. But we would not pick them, or else we would be locked up but I went in the Castle and I saw a very large table with fifty chairs all round it and a piano and a looking glass covered up on the wall.”
One boy who was taken to the lighthouse, though only ten, was evidently eager for useful information. He writes:—
“I asked the man how many candlepowers it was but I forgot what he said——”
an experience not unknown to his elders and betters!
This child records that “when playing on the beach I made Buckingham Palace but a big boy came along and trod it and so we went home to bed”—an unconscious repetition of the often-recorded conclusion of Pepys’ eventful days.