Маленький Лорд Фаунтлерой. Уровень 1 / Little Lord Fauntleroy

Once I used to be rather afraid of things-in the dark, you know; but when I thought about the soldiers in the Revolution and George Washington-it cured me.”

“There is another advantage in being an earl, sometimes,” said Mr. Havisham slowly, and he fixed his shrewd eyes on the little boy with a rather interesting expression. “Some earls have a great deal of money.”

He was interested because he wondered if his young friend knew what the power of money was.

“That’s a good thing to have,” said Ceddie innocently.

“I wish I had a great deal of money.”

“Do you?” said Mr. Havisham. “And why?”

“Well,” explained Cedric, “there are so many things a person can do with money. You see, there’s the apple-woman. If I were very rich I should buy her a little tent to put her counter in, and then I should give her a dollar every morning it rained, so that she could afford to stay at home. And then-oh! I’d give her a shawl. And, you see, her bones wouldn’t feel so bad. Her bones are not like our bones; they hurt her when she moves.

It’s very painful when your bones hurt you. If I were rich enough to do all those things for her, I guess her bones would be all right.”

“Ahem!” said Mr. Havisham. “And what else would you do if you were rich?”

“Oh! I’d do a great many things. Of course I should buy Dearest all sorts of beautiful things, needle-books and gold thimbles and rings, and an encyclopedia, and a carriage, so that she needn’t have to wait for the street-cars. If she liked pink silk dresses, I should buy her some, but she likes black best.

But I’d take her to the big stores, and tell her to look around and choose for herself. And then Dick-”

“Who is Dick?” asked Mr. Havisham.

“Dick is a boot-black[36 - boot-black – чистильщик обуви],” said his young lordship, quite warming up in his interest in plans. “He is one of the nicest boot-blacks you ever knew. He stands at the corner of a street down-town. I’ve known him for years.”

“And what would you like to do for him?” inquired the lawyer, rubbing his chin and smiling a strange smile.

“Well,” said Lord Fauntleroy, “I’d buy Jake out.”

“And who is Jake?” Mr. Havisham asked.

“He’s Dick’s partner, and he is the worst partner a fellow could have! Dick says so. He cheats, and that makes Dick mad. It would make you mad, you know, if you were blacking boots as hard as you could, and your partner did not. People like Dick, but they don’t like Jake, and so sometimes they don’t come twice.