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144
'It's your family. Don't try to deny it. There're the spit and image of you, and your wife, too!'
'I was about to introduce you,' said Dad. 'Mrs. Mebane, let me introduce you to the family — or most of
it. Seems to me like there should be some more of them around here someplace.'
'God help us all.'
'How many head of children do we have now, Lillie, would you say off hand?'
'Last time I counted, seems to me there was an even dozen of them,' said Mother. 'I might have missed
one or two of them, but not many.'
'I'd say twelve would be a pretty fair guess,' Dad said.
'Shame on you! And within eighteen miles of national headquarters.'
'Let's have tea,' said Mother.
But Mrs. Mebane was putting on her coat. 'You poor dear,' she clucked to Mother. 'You poor child.' Then
turning to Dad. 'It seems to me that the people of this town have pulled my leg on two different occasions
today.'
'How revolting,' said Dad. 'And within eighteen miles of national headquarters, too.'
(Story by Frank B. Gilbreth, Junior;
and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. Abridged)
HOME
Text 1
'Now, you'd better come upstairs with me and I'll show you your room. It used to be mine when I was
small and it has lots of pictures of bears round the wall so I expect you'll feel at home. 'She led the way up a
long flight of stairs, chattering all the time. Paddington followed closely behind, keeping carefully to the side
so that he didn't have to tread on the carpet.
'That's the bathroom,' said Judy. 'And that's my room. And that's Jonathan's — he's my brother, and you'll
meet him soon. And that's Mummy and Daddy's.' She opened a door. 'And this is going to be yours!'
Paddington nearly fell over with surprise when he followed her into the room. He'd never seen such a big
one. There was a large bed with white sheets against one wall and several big boxes, one with a mirror on it.
Judy pulled open a drawer in one of the boxes. 'This is called a chest of drawers,' she said. 'You'll be able to
keep all your things in here.'
Paddington looked at the drawer and then at his suitcase. 'I don't seem to have very much. That's the
trouble with being small — no one ever expects you to want things. '
(Extractfrom "A Bearfrom Peru in England" by Michael Bond)
Text 2
Our new home was altogether different. The night-nursery, which Jeanne and I shared, had its own
bathroom and lavatory. This was promotion indeed. No longer a nurse to supervise but a children's maid,
whose orders we could disregard. The day-nursery was on the other side of the house, and could be reached
in three separate ways by running down the imposing main staircase, going through the dining-room, and
running up a secondary staircase known as the green stairs; by running up the back staircase, which was
outside the night-nursery door, along the white corridor on the second floor outside D's and M's bedroom,*
and so down the higher flight of the green stairs; and by crossing the first-floor landing and slipping through
the double drawing-room, which took about one minute.
* Dad and Mum' bedroom.
These last two methods were unpopular with the grown-up world, but when they were out the way a
superb race could be set in motion between Jeanne and myself, one of us taking the first alternative, the
other the second. I generally found the second most successful. It was cheating to go through the drawing-
room. Besides, someone might be dusting there. Angela now had her own little bedroom, on the same floor
as M and D, and was therefore superior. She did not join in the races.
I soon discovered that our lavatory window led on to a flat roof over the dustbins in the courtyard, and by
climbing out of this window, and creeping along this same flat roof, one could drop down over the dustbins
and reach the coutyard. This was promptly discouraged. A pity. It damped adventure.
The garden at the back of the house made up for this disappointment. First a lawn, then, encircled by
bushes, a parapet that looked down on to the lower garden several feet below, where there was a herbaceous
border, and also vegetables. I would walk along the narrow parapet, eyes front, while Jeanne, below me in
the lower garden, would try to climb through it unseen, and so surprise me. This she seldom achieved.
(Extract from "Myself When Young" by Daphne du Maurier)