Kitabı oku: «Трое в лодке, не считая собаки / Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)», sayfa 13

 
‘When I was young I served a term
As office-boy to an attorney’s firm⁵⁵.’
 

(Aside to pianist): “It is too low, old man; we’ll have that over again, if you don’t mind.”

[Sings first two lines over again, in a high falsetto⁵⁶ this time.

Great surprise on the part of the audience. Nervous old lady near the fire begins to cry.]

HARRIS (continuing):

‘I swept the windows and I swept the door,

And I – ’

No – no, I cleaned the windows of the big front door.

And I polished up the floor – no, dash it⁵⁷ – I beg your pardon – funny thing, I can’t think of that line. And I – and I – Oh, well, we’ll get on to the chorus (sings):

 
‘And I diddle-diddle-diddle-diddle-diddle-diddle-de,
Till now I am the ruler of the Queen’s navee⁵⁸.’
 

Now then, chorus – it is the last two lines repeated, you know.

GENERAL CHORUS:

 
“And I diddle-diddle-diddle-diddle-diddle-diddle-de,
Till now I am the ruler of the Queen’s navee.”
 

And Harris never sees what an idiot he is making of himself, and how he is annoying a lot of people who never did him any harm. He promises them to sing another comic song after supper.

We reached Sunbury Lock at half-past three. The river is sweetly pretty just there before you come to the gates, and the backwater is charming; but don’t attempt to row up it⁵⁹.

I tried to do so once. I was sculling, and asked the fellows if they thought it could be done, and they said, oh, yes, they thought so, if I pulled hard. We were just under the little footbridge.

I pulled splendidly. My two friends said it was a pleasure to watch me. At the end of five minutes, I thought we ought to be near the weir, and I looked up. We were under the bridge, in exactly the same spot that we were when I began.

We sculled up to Walton⁶⁰, a rather large place for a riverside town. Cæsar ⁶¹, of course, had a little place at Walton – a camp, or an entrenchment, or something of that sort. Also Queen Elizabeth ⁶², she was there, too. You can never get away from that woman, go where you will ⁶³.

There is an iron ‘scold’s bridle⁶⁴’ in Walton Church. They used these things in ancient days for curbing women’s tongues. They have given up the attempt now. I suppose iron was getting scarce ⁶⁵, and nothing else would be strong enough.

There are also remarkable tombs in the church, but Harris didn’t seem to think of them, and we went on. Above the bridge the river winds tremendously. This makes it look picturesque; but it causes argument between the man who is pulling and the man who is steering.