BLUE WEDNESDAY

Вебстер, Джин

В26 Daddy-Long-Legs = Довгоногий дядечко:

Навч. посйб. / Укл. Л.Г. Бедринець. — К.: Т-во "Знания". КОО, 2006. — 115 с. — (Biojiio-течка для тих, хто вивчае англшську). ISBN 966-620-218-2

Книга американсько! письменниц1 Джин Вебстер написана в ешстолярному стши. Молода д1вчина. колишня вихованка сирггського притулку, пише ли-сти своему oniKyHoei. якого вона школи не бачила. Шир1стьлист1взворушлива, ЧитаючиЪс. переймаеш-ся глибокою симпат1ею до repoiHi.

Пос1бник розрахований на студенпв вуз1в, учн!в лШе1в та г!мназш, на Bcix. хто любить читати англш-ською мовою.

УДК 821.111

ББК81.2 Англ-9

© Л.Г. Бедринець, укладання.

2001 © Кшвська обласна оргашзац!я

товариства "Знания" Укра1ни, ISBN 966-620-218-2 2006

* .

Webster Jean (1876—1916), American novelist and short-story writer, was born in Fredonia, N.Y. She was named Jane for Mark Twain's mother, and was his grandniece. Her father was a publisher, once Twain's partner. She attended public schools in Fredonia and the Lady Jane Grey School in Binghamton, N.Y., which gave her a B.A. degree in 1901. The girl was a contributor to a Poughkeepsie, N.Y. newspaper, and wrote stories for the Vassar Miscellany. Majoring in English and economics, she had occasion to visit institutions for the destitute and delinquent, which gave her a firm conviction that there was no reason why underprivileged chil­dren could not succeed in life, a thesis she devel­oped with humor and modern spirit in DaddyLong-Legs (1912). The novel was later successfully dra­matized by its author and made into a silent pic­ture by Mary Pickford. The Wheat Princess (1905) was her own favorite novel. Jerry Junior (1907) was written at a convent in the Sabine Mountains

one chilly spring, when she was making a long stay in Italy during a world tour in 1907. The Four Pools Mystery (1908) was published anonymously. It was followed by Much Ado About Peter (1909) and Dear Enemy(\9l4).

In 1915 Jean Webster married Glenn Ford McKinney. They had an apartment in New York City overlooking Central Park, and an estate in the Berkshire Hills. There they raised ducks and pheas­ants. Jean Webster died in a hospital soon after the birth of their daughter; she was not yet forty.

BLUE WEDNESDAY

The first Wednesday in every month was a Per­fectly Awful Day — a day to be awaited with dread, endured with courage and forgotten with haste. Every floor must be spotless, every chair dustless, and every bed without a wrinkle. Ninety-seven little orphans must be scrubbed and combed and but­toned into freshly starched ginghams; and all ninety-seven reminded of their manners, and told to say, "Yes, sir," "No, sir," whenever a Trustee spoke.

It was a distressing time; and poor Jerusha Abbott, being the oldest orphan, had to bear the brunt of it. But this particular first Wednesday, like its predecessors, finally dragged itself to a close. Jerusha escaped from the pantry where she had been making sandwiches for the asylum's guests, and turned upstairs to accomplish her regular work. Her special care was room F, where eleven little tots, from four to seven, occupied eleven little

cots set in a row. Jerusha assembled her charges, straightened their rumpled frocks, wiped their noses, and started them in an orderly and willing line toward the dining-room to engage themselves for a blessed half hour with bread and milk and prune pudding.

Then she dropped down on the window seat and leaned throbbing temples against the cool glass. She had been on her feet since five that morning, doing everybody's bidding, scolded and hurried by a nervous matron, Mrs. Lippett.

The day was ended — quite successfully, so far as she knew. The Trustees and the visiting com­mittee had made their rounds, and read their re­ports, and drunk their tea, and now were hurrying home to their own cheerful firesides, to forget their bothersome little charges for another month. Jerusha leaned forward watching with curiosity — and a touch of wistfulness — the stream of car­riages and automobiles that drove out of the asy­lum gates. In imagination she followed first one equipage then another to the big houses standing along the hill-side.

Jerusha had an imagination — an imagination, Mrs. Lippett told her, that would get her into trouble if she didn't take care — but strong as it was, it could not carry her beyond the front porch of the houses she would enter. Poor, eager, adventurous little Jerusha, in all her seventeen years, had never stepped inside an ordinary house; she could not

picture the daily routine of those other human be­ings who carried on their lives undisturbed by or­phans.

Je-ru-sha Abbott You are wan-ted In the of-jice, And I think you 'd Better hurry up! Tommy Dillon who had joined the choir, came singing up the stairs and down the corridor, his chant growing louder as he approached room F. Jerusha tore herself from the window and refaced the troubles of life.

"Who wants me?" she cut into Tommy's chant with a note of sharp anxiety.

Mrs. Lippett in the office,

And I think she's mad.

Ah-a-men!

Jerusha went without comment, but with two

parallel lines on her brow. What could have gone

wrong, she wondered.

The long lower hall had not been lighted, and as she came downstairs, a last Trustee stood, on the point of departure, in the open door that led to the porte-cochere. Jerusha caught only a slight impression of the man — and the impression con­sisted entirely of tallness. He was waving his arm toward an automobile waiting in the curved drive. As it sprang into motion and approached, the glar­ing headlights threw his shadow sharply against

the wall inside. The shadow pictured grotesquely elongated legs and arms that ran along the floor and up the wall of the corridor. It looked, for all the world, like a big, wavering daddy-long-legs.

Jerusha's anxious frown gave place to quick laughter. She was by nature a sunny soul, and had always taken the smallest excuse to be amused. She advanced to the office quite cheered by the episode, and presented a smiling face to Mrs. Lippett. To her surprise the matron was also, if not exactly smiling, at least noticeably friendly; she wore an expression almost as pleasant as the one she used for visitors.

"Sit down, Jerusha, I have something to say to you."

Jerusha dropped into the nearest chair and waited with a touch of breathlessness.

"Did you notice the gentleman who has just gone?"

"I saw his back."

"He is one of our richest Trustees, and has given large sums of money for the asylum's support. I am not at liberty to mention his name; he insisted on remaining unknown."

Jerusha's eyes widened slightly; she was not accustomed to being called to the office to discuss the eccentricities of Trustees with the matron.

This gentleman has taken an interest in sev­eral of our boys. You remember Charles Benton and Henry Freize? They were both sent to college

by Mr. — er — this Trustee, and both have repaid with hard work and success the money that was so generously spent. Other payment the gentle­man does not wish. I have never been able to in­terest him in the slightest degree in any of the girls in the institution, no matter how deserving. He does not, I may tell you, care for girls."

"No, ma'am," Jerusha murmured, since some reply seemed to be expected at this point.

"To-day at the regular meeting, the question of your future was raised.

"Usually, as you know, the children are not kept after they are sixteen, but an exception was made in your case. You had finished our school at four­teen, and having done so well in your studies — not always, I must say, in your conduct — it was decided to let you go on in the village high school. Now you are finishing that, and of course the asy­lum cannot be responsible any longer for your sup­port. As it is, you have had two years more than

most."

Mrs. Lippett overlooked the fact that Jerusha had worked hard for her board during those two years, that the convenience of the asylum had come first and her education second; that on days like the present she was kept at home to scrub.

"As I say, the question of your future was raised and your record was discussed — thoroughly dis­cussed.

"Of course the usual way for one in your place

would be to put you in a position where you could begin to work, but you have done well in school in certain branches; it seems that your work in En­glish has even been brilliant. Miss Pritchard who is on our visiting committee is also on the school board, she made a speech in your favor. She also read aloud an essay that you had written entitled, "Blue Wednesday."

"It seemed to me that you showed little grati­tude in trying to ridicule the institution that has done so much for you. Had you not managed to be funny I doubt if you would have been forgiven. But luckily for you, Mr. —, that is, the gentleman who has just gone — appears to have a good sense of humor. On the strength of that impertinent paper, he has offered to send you to college."

"To college?" Jerusha's eyes grew big.

Mrs. Lippett nodded.

"He waited to discuss the terms with me. They are unusual. The gentleman, I may say, is wrong. He believes that you have originality, and he is plan­ning to educate you to become a writer."

"A writer?" Jerusha's mind was numbed She could only repeat Mrs. Lippett's words.

"That is his wish. Whether anything will come of it, the future will show. He is giving you a very generous allowance, almost, for a girl who has never had any experience in taking care of money, too generous. But he planned the 'matter in detail, and I did not feel free to make any suggestions.

Your board and tuition will be paid directly to the college, and you will receive in addition during the four years you are there, an allowance of thirty-five dollars a month. This will enable you to enter on the same standing as the other students. The money will be sent to you by the gentleman's pri­vate secretary once a month, and in return, you will write a letter of acknowledgment once a month. That is — you are not to thank him for the money; he doesn't care to have that mentioned, but you are to write a letter telling of the progress in your studies and the details of your daily life. Just such a letter as you would write to your parents if they were living.

"These letters will be addressed to Mr. John Smith and will be sent in care of the secretary. The gentleman's name is not John Smith, but he prefers to remain unknown. To you he will never be anything but John Smith. His reason in requir­ing the letters is that he thinks nothing helps bet­ter to become a writer than letter-writing, Since you have no family with whom to correspond, he wants you to write in this way; also, he wishes to be informed of your progress. He will never answer your letters nor take any notice of them. He hates letter-writing, and does not wish you to become a burden. If any point should ever arise where an answer would seem to be necessary, — you may correspond with Mr. Griggs, his secretary. These monthly letters are absolutely obligatory on your

part; they are the only payment that Mr. Smith requires, so you must be as accurate in sending them as though it were a bill that you were paying. I hope that they will always be respectful in tone and will reflect credit on your training. You must remember that you are writing to a Trustee of the John Grier Home."

Jerusha's eyes longingly looked for the door. Her head was in a whirl of excitement, and she wished only to escape from Mrs. Lippett's dull re­marks, and think. She rose and took a step back­wards. Mrs. Lippett stopped her with a gesture:

"Not many girls in your position ever have such an opportunity to rise in the world. You must al­ways remember —"

"I — yes, ma'am, thank you. I think, if that's all, I must go and sew a patch on Freddie Perkins's trousers."

The door closed behind her, and Mrs. Lippett watched it with dropped jaw, her last words in mid­air.