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Edith Nesbit
The Wouldbegoods
Published by Good Press, 2020
EAN 4064066070625
Table of Contents
Being Beavers; or, The Young Explorers (Arctic or Otherwise)
The Dragon's Teeth; or, Army-Seed
Albert's Uncle's Grandmother; or, The Long-Lost
ILLUSTRATIONS
| "'AND PATRIOTIC,' SAID HE" | Frontispiece | |
| "WE LET THE HOSE PLAY PERSEVERINGLY" | Facing p. | 16 |
| "'LITTLE BEASTS!' SAID DICK" | „ | 30 |
| "DENNY HELD ALICE'S AND NOËL'S HANDS" | „ | 84 |
| "DICKY DRAGGED THE TWO HEAVY BARS" | „ | 98 |
| "'OH, DEAR! OH DEAR!'" | „ | 104 |
| "HE SAT DOWN IN THE HEDGE TO LAUGH PROPERLY" | „ | 128 |
| "FOUND HIMSELF THE DEGRADED NURSE-MAID OF A SMALL BUT FURIOUS KID" | „ | 172 |
| "'WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?'" | „ | 192 |
| "THEN WE PUT IN THE JUGS AND FILLED IT UP WITH EARTH" | „ | 212 |
| "'I THINK YOU MUST LET ME LOOK INSIDE'" | „ | 222 |
| "OSWALD ACTUALLY HIT OUT AT THE BIG MAN" | „ | 240 |
| "A DOG-CART WITH A YOUNG LADY IN IT" | „ | 256 |
| "SO WE LED HIM ALONG TO THE AMBUSH" | „ | 282 |
| "THE COUNCIL IN THE APPLE-TREE | „ | 292 |
| "'AND ARE YOU GOING TO MARRY THIS LADY?'" | „ | 304 |
The Jungle
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THE WOULDBEGOODS
THE JUNGLE
These were the dreadful words of our Indian uncle. They made us feel very young and angry; and yet we could not be comforted by calling him names to ourselves, as you do when nasty grown-ups say nasty things, because he is not nasty, but quite the exact opposite when not irritated. And we could not think it ungentlemanly of him to say we were like jam, because, as Alice says, jam is very nice indeed—only not on furniture and improper places like that. My father said, "Perhaps they had better go to boarding-school." And that was awful, because we know father disapproves of boarding-schools. And he looked at us and said, "I am ashamed of them, sir!"
Your lot is indeed a dark and terrible one when your father is ashamed of you. And we all knew this, so that we felt in our chests just as if we had swallowed a hard-boiled egg whole. At least, this is what Oswald felt, and father said once that Oswald, as the eldest, was the representative of the family, so, of course, the others felt the same.
And then everybody said nothing for a short time. At last father said:
"You may go—but remember—" The words that followed I am not going to tell you. It is no use telling you what you know before—as they do in schools. And you must all have had such words said to you many times. We went away when it was over. The girls cried, and we boys got out books and began to read, so that nobody should think we cared. But we felt it deeply in our interior hearts, especially Oswald, who is the eldest and the representative of the family.
We felt it all the more because we had not really meant to do anything wrong. We only thought perhaps the grown-ups would not be quite pleased if they knew, and that is quite different. Besides, we meant to put all the things back in their proper places when we had done with them before any one found out about it. But I must not anticipate (that means telling the end of a story before the beginning. I tell you this because it is so sickening to have words you don't know in a story, and to be told to look it up in the dicker).
We are the Bastables—Oswald, Dora, Dicky. Alice, Noël, and H. O. If you want to know why we call our youngest