Of course, everybody thought she was mad. The people flew before her like chaff before the wind. In less than five seconds the High Street was a desert. The townsfolk scampered into their shops and houses and barricaded the doors. Brave men dashed out and caught up little children and bore them to places of safety amid cheers. Carts and carriages were abandoned, while the drivers climbed up lampposts!
What would have happened had the affair gone on much longer whether my aunt would have been shot, or the fire-engine brought into requisition against her it is impossible, having regard to the terrified state of the crowd, to say. Fortunately for her, she became exhausted. With one despairing shriek she gave way, and sat down on the dog; and peace reigned once again in that sweet rural town.
The Man Who Would Manage
(From Sketches in Lavender, Blue and Green, 1893)
It has been told me by those in a position to know and I can believe it that at nineteen months of age he wept because his grandmother would not allow him to feed her with a spoon, and that at three and a half he was fished, in an exhausted condition, out of the water-butt, whither he had climbed for the purpose of teaching a frog to swim.
Two years later he permanently injured his left eye, showing the cat how to carry kittens without hurting them, and about the same period was dangerously stung by a bee while conveying it from a flower where, as it seemed to him, it was only wasting its time, to one more rich in honey-making properties.
His desire was always to help others. He would spend whole mornings explaining to elderly hens how to hatch eggs, and would give up an afternoons black-berrying to sit at home and crack nuts for his pet squirrel. Before he was seven he would argue with his mother upon the management of children, and reprove his father for the way he was bringing him up.
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in a body (разг.) всей толпой
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wishing to put it pleasantly (разг.) желая сказать ему что-нибудь приятное
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every little helped (разг.) с чего-то же надо начинать
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To which one may you be alluding? (уст.) О ком именно вы спрашиваете? (Кого конкретно вы имеете в виду?)
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I would join him in a pipe (разг.) я тоже, пожалуй, закурю за компанию
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so as to save expense (разг.) так выходило дешевле
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your hair doesnt stand on end (разг.) у вас волосы не встают дыбом
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a water-rate collector (разг.) служащий, снимающий показания счетчиков воды
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thats the sort of thing we have to put up with (разг.) вот с чем приходится мириться
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I think I ought to know (разг.) думаю, мне виднее 38
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clearing my character from injurious suspicion (разг.) очистить мое имя от незаслуженных обвинений
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The sweetness of his disposition would not strike the casual observer at first glance. (уст.) Его благорасположенность не бросается в глаза с первого взгляда.
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in tones implying that the question could admit of no negative (ирон.) тоном, не допускающим отрицательного ответа
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with the air of a long-bafled connoisseur (разг.) с видом знатока
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especially if you are not used to it (разг.) особенно с непривычки
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confound foolhardiness with courage (разг.) путать безрассудство с храбростью
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he wouldnt hurt a worm (разг.) да он и мухи не обидит
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Cant we hush it up? (разг.) А мы не можем это как-нибудь замять?
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to keep the animal carefully confined to the house (уст.) держать зверя взаперти
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that conception he insisted on living up to with (разг.) он собирался отстаивать эти свои жизненные принципы
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s. сокр. от shillings
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d. сокр. от dēnārius, penny
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from the very first (разг.) с первого же взгляда
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until you have made him quite savage (разг.) пока вы не доведете его до белого каления
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it never fails (разг.) это всегда срабатывает
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Wish Id never had the d dog now! (разг.) Черт меня дернул связаться с этакой скотиной!
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Shame! (воскл.) Как не стыдно!
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both taken into custody (разг.) обоих сажают в каталажку
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in the old crinoline days (разг.) в стародавние времена
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upsetting the whole stock-in-trade (разг.) перевернув вверх дном весь магазин