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01 - The House of Arden - E Nesbit · Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: The House of Arden by Edith Nesbitt, Chapter one, Arden's Lord,
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  Speaker 1: Part one. It had been a great house once, with
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  Speaker 1: farms and fields, money and jewels, with tenants and squires
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  Speaker 1: and men at arms. The head of the house had
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  Speaker 1: ridden out three days journey to meet King Henry at
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  Speaker 1: the boundary of his estate, and the King had ridden
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  Speaker 1: back with him to lie in the tall state bed
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  Speaker 1: in the castle guest chamber. The heir of the house
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  Speaker 1: had led his following against Cromwell. Younger sons of the
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  Speaker 1: house had fought in foreign lands to the honor of England,
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  Speaker 1: and the gilding and regilding with the perishable gold of
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  Speaker 1: glory of the old Arden name. There had been Ardens
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  Speaker 1: in Saxon times, and there were Ardens still, but few
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  Speaker 1: and impoverished. The lands were gone, and the squires and
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  Speaker 1: men at arms. The castle itself was roofless, and its
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  Speaker 1: unglazed windows stared blankly across the fields of strangers that
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  Speaker 1: stretched right up to the foot of its gray, weather
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  Speaker 1: worn walls. And of the male Ardens there were now
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  Speaker 1: known only two, an old man and a child. The
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  Speaker 1: old man was Lord Arden, the head of the house,
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  Speaker 1: and he lived lonely in a little house built of
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  Speaker 1: the fallen stones that time and Cromwell's round shot had
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  Speaker 1: cast from the castle walls. The child was dred Arden,
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  Speaker 1: and he lived in a house in a clean, wind
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  Speaker 1: swept town on a cliff. It was a bright faced
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  Speaker 1: house with bow windows and a green balcony that looked
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  Speaker 1: out over the sparkling sea. It had three neat white
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  Speaker 1: steps and a brass knocker, pale and smooth with constant rubbing.
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  Speaker 1: It was a pretty house, and it would have been
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  Speaker 1: a pleasant house but for one thing, the lodgers. For
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  Speaker 1: I cannot conceal from you any longer that edred Arden
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  Speaker 1: lived with his aunt, and that his aunt let lodgings.
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  Speaker 1: Letting lodgings is one of the most unpleasant of all
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  Speaker 1: possible ways of earning your living. And I advise you
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  Speaker 1: to try every other honest way of earning your living
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  Speaker 1: before you take to that, Because people who go to
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  Speaker 1: the seaside and take lodgings seems somehow much harder to
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  Speaker 1: please than the people who go to hotels. They want
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  Speaker 1: ever so much more waiting on, They want so many meals,
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  Speaker 1: and at such odd times they ring the bell almost
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  Speaker 1: all day long. They bring in sand from the shore
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  Speaker 1: in every fold of their clothes, and it shakes out
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  Speaker 1: of them onto the carpets and the sofa cushions and
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  Speaker 1: everything in the house. They hang long streamers of wet
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  Speaker 1: seaweed against the pretty roses of the new wallpapers, and
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  Speaker 1: their wash hand basins are always full of sea anemones
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  Speaker 1: and shells. Also, they are noisy. Their boots seem to
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  Speaker 1: be always on the stairs, no matter how bad a
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  Speaker 1: headache you may have. And when you give them their bill,
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  Speaker 1: they always think it is too much, no matter how
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  Speaker 1: little it may be. So do not let lodgings if
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  Speaker 1: you can help it. Miss Arden could not help it.
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  Speaker 1: It happened like this. Edred and his sister were at school.
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  Speaker 1: Did I tell you he had a sister? Well? He had,
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  Speaker 1: and her name was Elfrida. Miss Arden lived near the
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  Speaker 1: school so that she could see the children often. She
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  Speaker 1: was getting her clothes ready for her wedding, and the
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  Speaker 1: gentleman who was going to marry her was coming home
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  Speaker 1: from South America, where he had made a fortune. The
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  Speaker 1: children's father was coming home from South America too, with
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  Speaker 1: the fortune that he had made for He and Miss
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  Speaker 1: Arden's sweetheart were partners. The children and their aunt talked
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  Speaker 1: whenever they met of the glorious time that was coming,
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  Speaker 1: and how when father and Uncle Jim they called him
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  Speaker 1: Uncle Jim already came home. They were all going to
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  Speaker 1: live in the country and be happy ever after. And
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  Speaker 1: then the news came that father and Uncle Jim had
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  Speaker 1: been captured by brigands, and all the money was lost too,
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  Speaker 1: and there was no nothing left but the house on
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  Speaker 1: the cliff. So Miss Arden took the children from the
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  Speaker 1: expensive school in London and they all went to live
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  Speaker 1: in the cliff House. And as there was no money
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  Speaker 1: to live on, and no other way of making money
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  Speaker 1: to live on except letting lodgings, Miss Arden let them
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  Speaker 1: like the brave lady she was, and did it well.
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  Speaker 1: And then came the news that father and Uncle Jim
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  Speaker 1: were dead, and for a time the light of life
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  Speaker 1: went out in Cliff House. This was two years ago,
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  Speaker 1: But the children had never got used to the Lodgers.
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  Speaker 1: They hated them. At first. They had tried to be
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  Speaker 1: friendly with the lodger's children, but they soon found that
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  Speaker 1: the lodger's children considered Edred and Alfrida very much beneath them,
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  Speaker 1: and looked down on them accordingly, and very often the
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  Speaker 1: lodger's children were the sort of children on whom anybody
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  Speaker 1: might have looked down, if it were right and kind
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  Speaker 1: to look down on any one. And when Master Reginald
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  Speaker 1: pots of Peckham puts his tongue out at you want
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  Speaker 1: the bread, and says write before everybody lodgings, yeah, it
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  Speaker 1: is hard to feel quite the same to him as
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  Speaker 1: you did before. When there were lodgers, and there nearly
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  Speaker 1: always were, for the house was comfortable, and people who
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  Speaker 1: had been once came again. The children and their aunt
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  Speaker 1: had to live in the very top and the very
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  Speaker 1: bottom of the house, in the attics and the basement.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, when there were no lodgers, they used all
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  Speaker 1: the rooms in turn to keep them aired. But the
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  Speaker 1: children liked the big basement parlor room best because there
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  Speaker 1: all the furniture had belonged to dead and gone ardens,
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  Speaker 1: and all the pictures on the walls were of ardens
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  Speaker 1: dead and gone. The rooms that the lodgers had were
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  Speaker 1: furnished with a new sort of furniture that had no
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  Speaker 1: stories belonging to it, such as belonged to the old
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  Speaker 1: polished oak tables and bureau that were in the basement parlor.
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  Speaker 1: Edred and Elfrida went to school every day and learned reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, spelling,
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  Speaker 1: and useful knowledge, all of which they hated quite impartially,
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  Speaker 1: which means they hated the whole lot one thing as
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  Speaker 1: much as another. The only part of lessons they liked
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  Speaker 1: was the homework when if Aunt Edith had time to
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  Speaker 1: help them. Geography became like adventures, history like story books,
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  Speaker 1: and even arithmetic suddenly seemed to mean something. I wish
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  Speaker 1: you could teach us, always said Edred, very inky and
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  Speaker 1: interested for the first time in the exports of China.
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  Speaker 1: It does seem so silly trying to learn things that
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  Speaker 1: are only words and books. I wish I could, said
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  Speaker 1: Aunt Edith, But I can't do twenty nine thousand and
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  Speaker 1: seventeen things all at once. And a bell jangled. That's
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  Speaker 1: the seventh time since tea. She got up and went
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  Speaker 1: into the kitchen. There's the bell again, my poor Eliza.
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  Speaker 1: Never mind answer the bell, but don't answer them. Whatever
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  Speaker 1: they say, it doesn't do a bit of good, and
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  Speaker 1: it sometimes prevents their giving you half crowns when they leave.
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  Speaker 1: I do love it when they go, said Elfrida. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: said her aunt, a cap top heavy with luggage. The
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  Speaker 1: horse's nose turned stationward. It's a heavenly sight when the
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  Speaker 1: bill is paid. And but then I'm just as glad
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  Speaker 1: to see the luggage coming chickens. When my ship comes home,
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  Speaker 1: we'll go and live on a desert island where her
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  Speaker 1: aren't any cabs. We won't have any lodgers in our cave.
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  Speaker 1: When I grow up, said Edred, I shall go across
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  Speaker 1: the sea and look for your ship and bring it home.
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  Speaker 1: I shall take a steam tug and steer at myself.
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  Speaker 1: Then I shall be captain, said Elfrida. No, I shall
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  Speaker 1: be captain. You can't if you steer, yes, I can. No,
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  Speaker 1: you can't. Yes, I can well do, then, said Elfrida.
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  Speaker 1: And while you're doing it, I know you can't. I
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  Speaker 1: shall dig in the garden and find a gold mine,
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  Speaker 1: and Aunt Edith will be rolling in money when you
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  Speaker 1: come back, and she won't want your silly old ship.
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  Speaker 1: Spelling next, said Aunt Edith, how do you spell disagreeable?
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  Speaker 1: Which of us? Asked Dred acutely, both, said Aunt Edith,
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  Speaker 1: trying to look very severe. When you are a child,
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  Speaker 1: you always dream of your ship coming home, of having
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  Speaker 1: a hundred pounds or a thousand or million pounds to
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  Speaker 1: spend as you like. My favorite dream I remember was
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  Speaker 1: a thousand pounds and an express understanding that I was
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  Speaker 1: not to spend it at anything useful. And when you
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  Speaker 1: have dreamed of your million pounds or your thousand or
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  Speaker 1: your hundred, you spend happy hour on hour in deciding
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  Speaker 1: what presents you will buy for each of the people
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  Speaker 1: you are fond of, and in picturing their surprise and
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  Speaker 1: delight at your beautiful presence and your wonderful generosity. I
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  Speaker 1: think very few of us spend our dream fortunes entirely
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  Speaker 1: on ourselves. Of course, we buy ourselves a motor bicycle
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  Speaker 1: straight away, and footballs and bats, and dolls with real hair,
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  Speaker 1: and real china, tea sets and large boxes of mixed
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  Speaker 1: chocolates and Treasure Island and all the books that Missus
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  Speaker 1: Ewing wrote. But when we have done that, we begin
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  Speaker 1: to buy things for other people. It is a beautiful dream,
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  Speaker 1: but too often by the time it comes true up
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  Speaker 1: to a hundred pounds or a thousand, we forget what
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  Speaker 1: we used to mean to do with our money and
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  Speaker 1: spend it all in stocks and shares and eligible building sights,
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  Speaker 1: and fat cigars and fur coats. If I were young again,
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  Speaker 1: I would sit down and write a list of all
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  Speaker 1: the kind things I meant to do when my ship
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  Speaker 1: came home. And if my ship ever did come home,
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  Speaker 1: I would read that list. And but the parlor bell
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  Speaker 1: is ringing for the eighth time, and the front door
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  Speaker 1: bell is ringing too, and the first floor is ringing also,
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  Speaker 1: and so is the second floor. And Eliza is trying
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  Speaker 1: to answer four bells at once, always a most difficult
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  Speaker 1: thing to do. The front door bell was rung by
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  Speaker 1: the postman. He brought three letters. The first was a
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  Speaker 1: bill for mending the lid of the cistern on which
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  Speaker 1: Dred had recently lighted a fire, fortified by an impression
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  Speaker 1: that wood could not if there were water on the
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  Speaker 1: other side, a totally false impression, as the charge cistern
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  Speaker 1: lid proved. The second was an inquiry whether miss Arden
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  Speaker 1: would take a clergyman and at half the usual price,
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  Speaker 1: because he had a very large family which had all
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  Speaker 1: just had measles. And the third was the letter which
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  Speaker 1: is really the seed and beginning and backbone and rhyme
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  Speaker 1: and reason of this story, Edred had got the letters
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  Speaker 1: from the postman, and he stood and waited while Aunt
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  Speaker 1: Edith read them. He collected postmarks, and he had not
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  Speaker 1: been able to make out, by the thick half light
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  Speaker 1: of the hall gas whether any of these were valuable.
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  Speaker 1: The third letter had a very odd effect on Aunt Edith.
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  Speaker 1: She read it once and rubbed her hand across her eyes.
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  Speaker 1: Then she got up and stood under the chandelier which
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  Speaker 1: wanted new Berners badly and so burned with a very
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  Speaker 1: unlighting light, and read it again. Then she read it
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  Speaker 1: a third time, and then she said, oh, what is it, auntie?
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  Speaker 1: Elfrida asked anxiously. Is it the taxes? It had been
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  Speaker 1: the taxes once, and Elfrida had never forgotten. If you
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  Speaker 1: don't understand what this means, ask your poorest relations, who
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  Speaker 1: are all so likely to be your nicest. And if
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  Speaker 1: they don't know, ask the washerwoman. No, it's not the taxes, darling,
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  Speaker 1: said Aunt Edith. On the contrary, I don't know what
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  Speaker 1: the contrary or opposite of taxes is any more than
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  Speaker 1: the children did, but I am sure it is something
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  Speaker 1: quite nice, and so were they. Oh, Aunty, I am
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  Speaker 1: so glad they both said, and said it several times
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  Speaker 1: before they asked again, what is it? I think I'm
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  Speaker 1: not quite sure, but I think it's a ship come home. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: just a quite tiny little bit of a ship, a
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  Speaker 1: toy boat, hardly more than that. But I must go
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  Speaker 1: up to London to morrow, the first thing, and see
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  Speaker 1: if it really is a ship, and if so, what
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  Speaker 1: sort of a ship it is. Missus Blake shall come
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  Speaker 1: in and you'll be good as gold children, won't you, Yes, oh, yes,
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  Speaker 1: said the two, And not make booby traps for the butcher,
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  Speaker 1: or go on the roof in your night gowns, or
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  Speaker 1: play red Indians in the dust bin, or make apple
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  Speaker 1: pie beds for the lodgers. Aunt Edith asked, hastily, mentioning
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  Speaker 1: a few of the little amusements which had lately enlivened
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  Speaker 1: the spare time of her nephew and niece. No, we won't, really,
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  Speaker 1: said Edred. And we'll truly try not to think of
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  Speaker 1: anything new and amusing. He added, with real self sacrifice.
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  Speaker 1: I must go by the eight thirty train. I wish
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  Speaker 1: I could think of some way of of amusing you,
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  Speaker 1: she ended, for she was too kind to say of
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  Speaker 1: keeping you out of mischief for the day, which was
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  Speaker 1: what she really thought. I'll bring you something jolly for
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  Speaker 1: your birthday, Edred. Wouldn't you like to spend the day
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  Speaker 1: with nice missus Hammond. Oh no, said Edred, and added,
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  Speaker 1: on the inspiration of the moment, why may't we have
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  Speaker 1: a picnic just elf and me on the downs to
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  Speaker 1: keep my birthday? It doesn't matter at being the day before,
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  Speaker 1: does it. You said we were too little last summer,
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  Speaker 1: and we should this, And now it is this. And
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  Speaker 1: I have grown two inches and Elves grown three, so
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  Speaker 1: we're five inches tall than when we said we weren't
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  Speaker 1: big enough. Now you begin to see how useful arithmetic is,
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  Speaker 1: said the aunt. Very well, you shall only wear your
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  Speaker 1: old clothes and keep in sight of the road. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: you can have a whole holiday. And now to bed.
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  Speaker 1: Oh there's that bell again, Poor dear Eliza, a Clapham
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  Speaker 1: cub belonging to one of the lodgers, happened to be
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  Speaker 1: going up to bed just as Edred and Elfrida came
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  Speaker 1: through the bay's door that shut off the basement from
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  Speaker 1: the rest of the house. He put his tongue out
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  Speaker 1: through the banisters at the children of the house and said,
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  Speaker 1: little slavees. The cub thought he could get up the
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  Speaker 1: stairs before the two got round the end of the banisters,
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  Speaker 1: but he had not counted on the long arm of Elfrida,
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  Speaker 1: whose hands shot through the banisters and caught the cub's
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  Speaker 1: leg and held on to it till Edred had time
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  Speaker 1: to get round. The two boys struggled up the stairs
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  Speaker 1: together and then rolled together from top to bottomn where
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  Speaker 1: they were picked up and disentangled by their relations. Except
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  Speaker 1: for this little incident, going to bed was uneventful. Next morning,
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  Speaker 1: Aunt Edith went off by the eight thirty train. The
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  Speaker 1: children's school satchels were filled not with books, but with buns.
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  Speaker 1: Instead of exercise books, there were sandwiches, and in the
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  Speaker 1: place of inky pencil boxes were two magnificent boxes of
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  Speaker 1: peppermint creams, which had cost a hole shilling each and
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  Speaker 1: had been recklessly bought by Aunt Edith in the agitation
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  Speaker 1: of the parting hour. When they saw her off at
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  Speaker 1: the station, they went slowly up the red brick paved
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  Speaker 1: sidewalk that always looked as though it had just been washed,
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  Speaker 1: And when they got to the top of the hill,
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  Speaker 1: they stopped and looked at each other. It can't be wrong,
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  Speaker 1: said Edred. She never told us not to, said Elfrida.
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  Speaker 1: I've noticed, said Edred, that when grown up people say
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  Speaker 1: they'll see about anything you want, it never happens. I've
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  Speaker 1: noticed that too, said Elfrida. Aunty always said she'd see
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  Speaker 1: about taking us there, Yes, she did. We won't be
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  Speaker 1: mean and sneaky about it, Edred insisted, though no one
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  Speaker 1: had suggested that he would be mean and sneaky. We'll
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  Speaker 1: tell Aunty directly she gets back, of course, said Elfrida,
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  Speaker 1: rather relieved, for she had not felt at all sure
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  Speaker 1: that Edred meant to do this after all, said Edred.
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  Speaker 1: It's our castle. We ought to go and see the
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  Speaker 1: cradle of our race. That's what it calls it in Cliffgate,
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  Speaker 1: in its environs. I say, let's call it a pilgrimage.
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  Speaker 1: The satchels will do for packs, and we can get
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  Speaker 1: half many walking sticks with that penny of yours. We
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: can put peas in our shoes if you like, he
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  Speaker 1: added generously. We should have to go back for them.
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  Speaker 1: And I don't expect the split kind count anyway, And
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  Speaker 1: perhaps they'd hurt, said Elfrida doubtfully. And I want my penny,
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  Speaker 1: for she stopped, warned by her brother's frown. All right,
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  Speaker 1: then she ended, you can have it, only give me
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  Speaker 1: half next time you get a penny. That's only fair.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not usually unfair, said Edred coldly. Don't let's be pilgrims,
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  Speaker 1: but I should like to, said Elfrida. Edred was obstinate. No,
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  Speaker 1: he said, we'll just walk, so they just walked rather dismally.
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  Speaker 1: The town was getting thinner, like the tract of stalking
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  Speaker 1: that surrounds a hole. The houses were farther apart and
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: had large gardens, and one of them, a maid was
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  Speaker 1: singing to herself as she shook out the mats, a
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  Speaker 1: thing which somehow maids don't do much in towns. Good luck,
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  Speaker 1: says I to my sweetheart, for I will love you
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  Speaker 1: true and all the while we've got to part, my
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  Speaker 1: luck shall go with you. That's lucky for us, said
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  Speaker 1: Elfrida amiably. We're not her silly sweetheart, said Edred. No,
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  Speaker 1: but we heard her sing it, and he wasn't here,
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  Speaker 1: so he couldn't. There's a sign post. I wonder how
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  Speaker 1: far we've gone. I'm getting awfully tired, bed better of
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  Speaker 1: being pilgrims, said Edred. They never get tired, however many
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  Speaker 1: peas they have in their shoes. I will now, said Elfrida.
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  Speaker 1: You can't, said Edred. It's too late for miles and
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  Speaker 1: miles from the stick shop. Very well, I shan't go on,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: said Elfrida. You got out of bed the wrong side
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  Speaker 1: this morning. I've tried to soft answer you as hard
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  Speaker 1: as ever I could all the morning, and I'm not
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  Speaker 1: going to try any more. So there don't, then, said Edred, bitterly,
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  Speaker 1: go along home. If you like, you're only a girl.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: I'd rather be only a girl than what you are,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: said she. And what's that I should like to know?
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Elfrida stopped and shut her eyes tight. Don't don't, don't, don't,
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  Speaker 1: she said. I won't be cross. I won't be cross.
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  Speaker 1: I won't be cross. Packs drop it, don't, let's don't.
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  Speaker 1: Let's what quarrel about? Nothing, said Elfrida, opening her eyes
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  Speaker 1: and walking on very fast. We're always doing it. Aunty says,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: it's a habit. If boys are so much splendider than girls,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: they ought to be able to stop when they like.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Suppose they don't like, said he, kicking his boots in
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: the thick white dust, well, said she. I'll say I'm
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: sorry first, Will that do? I was just going to
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: say it first myself, said Edred in aggrieved tones. Come on,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: he added, more generously. Here's the sign post. Let's see
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: what it says. It said, quite plainly and without any
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: nonsense about it, that they had come a mile and
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: three quarters, adding most unkindly that it was eight miles
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: to Ardencastle. But it said it was a quarter of
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: a mile to Ardenhurst's station. Let's go by train, said
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Edred grandly. No money, said Elfrida, very forlornly. Indeed, aha,
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: said Edred. Now you'll see I'm not mean about money.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: I brought my new florin oh, Eedrid, said the girl,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: stricken with remorse. You are noble, pooh, said the boy,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: and his ears grew red with mingled triumph and modesty.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: That's nothing. Come on. End of Section one.