Our Admirable Betty

Chapter 9

Subscribe for ad free access & additional features for teachers. Authors: 267, Books: 3,607, Poems & Short Stories: 4,435, Forum Members: 71,154, Forum Posts: 1,238,602, Quizzes: 344

"I pr'ythee spare me, gentle boy

Press me no more for that slight toy

That foolish trifle of a heart

I swear it will not do its part

Though thou dost thine--"

The Viscount checked his song and inserting the upper half of his person through the open lattice, hailed the Major cheerily.

"But we'll change all that in a month--aye, less! You shall grow two or three hundred years younger and enjoy at last the youth you've never known."

"Sir," said he, "there was, on a time, a little, wretched boy, who, hating and fearing his father, grieving in his sweet mother's griefs until she died, found thereafter a friend, very tender and strong, in a big, red-coated uncle--"

"Aye sir, but I found him more truly satisfying to my youthful needs than any uncle by blood, Lord love me! At whose all too infrequent visits my boyish griefs and fears fled away-O Gad, sir, in those days I made of you a something betwixt Ajax defying the lightning and a-wet-nurse, and plague take it, sir, d'ye wonder if I--" Here the Viscount took a pinch of snuff and sneezed violently. "Rat me!" he gasped, "'tis the hatefullest stuff!" Followed a volley of sneezing and thereafter a feeble voice-"The which reminds me sir we must drink tea--"

But the women dote on it, dear creatures! 'Tis to the s*x what water is to the pig (poor, fat, ignorant brute!) ale to the yeoman (lusty fellow) Nantzy to your nobby-nosed parson (roguish old boy) and wine to your man of true taste. So, let there be tea, sir."

"Why then, wear your blue and silver, nunky, 'tis the least obnaxious and by the way, have you such a thing as a lackey or so about the place to get in one's way and to be tumbled over as is the polite custom, sir?"

"Hum!" said the Major thoughtfully, "I fancy the Sergeant has drafted 'em all into his gardening squad-ask Mrs. Agatha, she'll know."

Art of Worldly Wisdom Daily

In the 1600s, Balthasar Gracian, a jesuit priest wrote 300 aphorisms on living life called "The Art of Worldly Wisdom." Join our newsletter below and read them all, one at a time.

Email:

Sonnet-a-Day Newsletter

Shakespeare wrote over 150 sonnets! Join our Sonnet-A-Day Newsletter and read them all, one at a time.

Email: