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15 - Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett · Little Lord Fauntleroy

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Ben took his boy and went back to his cattle
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: ranch in California, and he returned under very comfortable circumstances.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Just before his going mister Havisham had an interview with
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: him in which the lawyer told him that the Earl
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: of Dorincourt wished to do something for the boy who
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: might have turned out to be Lord Fauntleroy, and so
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: he had decided that it would be a good plan
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: to invest in a cattle ranch of his own and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: put Ben in charge of it, on terms which would
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: make it pay him very well, and which would lay
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: a foundation for his son's future. And so when Ben
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: went away, he went as the prospective master of a
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: ranch which would be almost as good as his own,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: and might easily become his own in time, as indeed
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: it did in the course of a few years. And
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Tom the boy grew up on it into a fine
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: young man and was devotedly fond of his father. And
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: they were so successful and happy that Ben used to
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: say that Tom made up to him for all the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: troubles he had ever had. But Dick and mister Hobbs,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: who had actually come over with the others to see
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: that things were properly looked after did not return for
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: some time. It had been decided at the outset that
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: the Earl would provide for Dick and would see that
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: he received a solid education, and mister Hobbs had decided
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: that as he himself had left a reliable substitute in
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: charge of his store, he could afford to wait to
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: see the festivities which were to celebrate Lord Fauntleroy's eighth birthday.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: All the tenantry were invited, and there were to be
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: feasting and dancing, and games in the park, and bonfires
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: and fireworks in the evening, just like the Fourth of July,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: said Lord Fauntleroy. It seems a pity my birthday wasn't
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: on the fourth, doesn't it, For then we could keep
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: them both together. It must be confessed that at first
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: the Earl and mister Hobbs were not as intimate as
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: it might have been hoped they would become in the
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: interests of the British aristocracy. The fact was that the
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Earl had known very few grocery men, and mister Hobbs
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: had not had many very close acquaintances who were earls,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: and so in their rare interviews conversation did not flourish.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: It must also be owned that mister Hobbs had been
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  Speaker 1: rather overwhelmed by the splendors. Fauntleroy felt it his duty
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: to show him the entrance gate, and the stone lions
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: and the avenue impressed mister Hobbs somewhat at the beginning.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: And when he saw the castle and the flower gardens,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: and the hot houses, and the terraces, and the peacocks,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: and the dungeon, and the armor, and the great staircase,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: and the stables, and the liveried servants, he really was
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: quite bewildered. But it was the picture gallery which seemed
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: to be the finishing stroke, something in the manner of
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: a museum. He said to Fauntleroy, when he was led
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: into the great beautiful room. No, said Fauntleroy, rather doubtfully.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: I don't think it's a museum. My grandfather says. These
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: are my ancestors, your aunt's sisters. Ejaculated mister Hobbs, all
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: of em, your great uncle. He must have had a family,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: did he raise em? All? And he sank into his
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: seat and looked around him with quite an agitated countenance,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: until with the greatest difficulty, Lord Fauntleroy managed to explain
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: that the walls were not lined entirely with the portraits
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: of the progeny of his great uncle. He found it necessary,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: in fact, to call in the assistance of Missus Mallan,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: who knew all about the pictures and could tell who
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: painted them and when, and who added romantic stories of
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: the lords and ladies who were the originals. When mister
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Hobbs once understood and had heard some of these stories,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: he was very much fascinated and liked the picture gallery
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  Speaker 1: almost better than anything else, and he would often walk
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: over from the village where he stayed at the Dorincourt Arms,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: and would spend half an hour or so wandering about
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: the gallery, staring at the painted ladies and gentlemen, who
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: also stared at him, and shaking his head nearly all
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  Speaker 1: the time. And they was all earls, he would say,
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  Speaker 1: or pretty nighat and he's going to be one of
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  Speaker 1: em and own it all privately. He was not nearly
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: so much disgusted with earls in their mode of life
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: as he had expected to be. And it is to
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: be doubted whether his strictly republican principles were not shaken
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: a little by a closer acquaintance with castles and ancestors
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: and all the rest of it. At any rate, One
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: day he uttered a very remarkable and unexpected sentiment. I
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have minded being one of em myself, he said,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: which was really a great concession. What a grand day
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: it was when little Lord Fauntleroy's birthday are, and how
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: his young lordship enjoyed it, how beautiful the park looked,
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  Speaker 1: filled with the thronging people dressed in their gayest and best,
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  Speaker 1: and with the flags flying from the tents and the
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  Speaker 1: top of the castle. Nobody had stayed away, who could
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: possibly come, Because everybody was really glad that little Lord
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Fauntleroy was to be little Lord Fauntleroy still, and some
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: day was to be the master of everything. Everyone wanted
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: to have a look at him and at his pretty
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  Speaker 1: kind mother, who had made so many friends, And positively,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: everyone liked the Earl rather better and felt more amiably
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: toward him because the little boy loved and trusted him so,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: and because also he had now made friends with and
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: behaved respectfully to his heir's mother. It was said he
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: was even beginning to be fond of her too, and
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: that between his young lordship and his young lordship's mother.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: The Earl might be changed in time into quite a
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  Speaker 1: well behaved old nobleman, and everybody might be happier and
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: better off. What scores and scores of people there were
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  Speaker 1: under the trees and in the tents, and on the lawns,
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  Speaker 1: farmers and farmers, wives in their Sunday suits and bonnets
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  Speaker 1: and shawls, girls in their sweethearts, children frolicking and chasing about,
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  Speaker 1: and old dames and red cloaks gossiping together At the
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: castle there were ladies and gentlemen who had come to
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  Speaker 1: see the fun and to congratulate the Earl, and to
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: meet missus Errol. Lady Laurdale and Sir Harry were there,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: and Sir Thomas ashe and his daughters, and mister Havisham,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: of course, and then beautiful Miss Vivian Herbert, with the
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: loveliest white gown and lace parasol, and a circle of
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: gentlemen to take care of her, though she evidently liked
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Fauntleroy better than all of them put together. And when
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: he saw her and ran to her and put his
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: arm around her neck, she put her arms around him too,
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  Speaker 1: and kissed him as warmly, as if he had been
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: her own favorite little brother, and she said, dear little
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Lord Fauntleroy, dear little boy, I am so glad, I
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: am so glad. And afterwards she walked about the grounds
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: with him and let him show her everything. And when
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: he took her to where mister Hobbs and Dick were
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and said to her, this is my old old friend,
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  Speaker 1: mister Hobbs, Miss Herbert, and this is my other old
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: friend Dick. I told them how pretty you were, and
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: I told them they should see you if you came
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  Speaker 1: to my birthday. She shook hands with them both and
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: stood and talked to them in her prettiest way, asking
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: them about America and their voyage and their life since
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: they had been in England, while Fauntleroy stood by looking
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: up at her with adoring eyes, and his cheeks quite
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: flushed with delight because he saw that mister Hobbs and
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  Speaker 1: Dick liked her so much. Well, said Dick solemnly afterward,
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  Speaker 1: She's the daisiest game all I ever saw. She's well,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: she's just a daisy, that's what she is, and no mistake.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody looked after her as she passed, and everyone looked
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: after little Lord Fauntleroy, and the sun shone, and the
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: flags fluttered, and the games were played, and the dances danced,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: And as the gaieties went on and the joyous afternoon passed,
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  Speaker 1: his little Lordship was simply, radiantly happy. The whole world
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: seemed beautiful to him. There was someone else who was happy, too,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: an old man who, though he had been rich and
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: noble all his life, had not often been very honestly happy. Perhaps, indeed,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: I shall tell you that I think it was because
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: he was rather better than he had been, that he
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: was rather happier. He had not, indeed suddenly become as
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: good as Fauntleroy thought him, but at least he had
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: begun to love something, and he had several times found
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: a sort of pleasure in doing the kind things which
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: the inner and kind little heart of a child had suggested.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: And that was a beginning. And every day he had
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: been more pleased with his son's wife. It was true,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: as the people said, that he was beginning to like
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: her too. He liked to hear her sweet voice and
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: to see her sweet face, And as he sat in
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: his arm chair he used to watch her and listen
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: as she talked to her boy, and he heard loving,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: gentle words which were new to him, and he began
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: to see why the little fellow, who had lived in
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: a New York side street and known grocerymen and made
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: friends with bootblacks, was still so well bred and manly,
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  Speaker 1: a little fellow that he made no one ashamed of him,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: even when fortune changed him into the air to an
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  Speaker 1: English earldom, living in an English castle. It was really
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: a very simple thing, after all. It was only that
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: he had lived near a kind and gentle heart, and
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: had been taught to think kind thoughts always, and to
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  Speaker 1: care for others. It is a very little thing, perhaps,
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  Speaker 1: but it is the best thing of all. He knew
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  Speaker 1: nothing of earls and castles. He was quite ignorant of
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  Speaker 1: all grand and splendid things. But he was always lovable
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: because he was simple and loving. To be so is
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: like being born a king, As the old Earl of
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Dorincourt looked at him that day, moving about the park
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  Speaker 1: among the people, talking to those he knew, and making
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: his ready little bow when any one greeted him, entertaining
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: his friends Dick and mister Hobbs, or standing near his
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: mother or Miss Herbert, listening to their conversation, the old
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: nobleman was very well satisfied with him, and he had
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: never been better satisfied than he was when they went
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: down to the biggest tent, where the more important tenets
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: of the Dorincourt estate were sitting, down to the grand
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: collation of the day. They were drinking toasts, and after
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: they had drunk the health of the Earl, with much
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: more enthusiasm than his name had ever been greeted with before,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: they proposed the health of little Lord Fauntleroy. And if
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: there had ever been any doubt at all as to
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: whether his lordship was popular or not, it would have
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: been set that instant, such a clamor of voices, and
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: such a rattle of glasses and applause. They had begun
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: to like him so much, those warm hearted people, that
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: they forgot to feel any restraint. Before the ladies and
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: gentlemen from the castle who had come to see them,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: they made quite a decent uproar, and one or two
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: motherly women looked tenderly at the little fellow, where he
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: stood with his mother on one side and the Earl
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: on the other, and grew quite moist about the eyes,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: and said to one another God bless him. The pretty little,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: dear little Lord Fauntleroy was delighted. He stood and smiled
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: and made bows and flushed rosy red with pleasure up
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: to the roots of his bright hair. Is it because
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: they liked me, dearest? He said to his mother, Is it, dearest?
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: I am so glad. And then the Earl put his
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: hand on the child's shoulder and said to him, Fauntleroy,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: say to them that you thank them for their kindness.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Fauntleroy gave a glance up at him, and then at
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: his mother. Must I, he asked, just a trifle shyly,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: and she smiled, and so did Miss Herbert, and they
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: both nodded, and so he made a little step forward,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: and everybody looked at him. Such a beautiful, innocent little
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: fellow he was, too, with his brave, trustful face, and
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: he spoke as loudly as he could, his childish voice
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: ringing out quite clear and strong. I'm ever so much
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: obliged to you, he said, And I hope you'll enjoy
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: my birthday, because I've enjoyed it so much, and I'm
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: very glad I'm going to be an earl. I didn't
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: think at first I should like it, But now I do.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: And I love this place so and I think it
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: is beautiful and and and when I am an earl,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: I am going to try to be as good as
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: my grandfather. And amid the shouts and clamor of applause,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: he stepped back with a little sigh of relief, and
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: put his hand into the Earl's and stood close to him,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: smiling and leaning against his side. And that would be
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: the very end of my story. But I must add
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: one curious piece of information, which is that mister Hobbs
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: became so fascinated with high life, and was so reluctant
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: to leave his young friend, that he actually sold his
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: corner store in New York and settled in the English
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: village of Earlsborough, where he opened a shop which was
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: patronized by the castle, and consequently was a great success.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: And though he and the Earl never became very intimate,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: if you will believe me, that man Hobbs became in
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: time more aristocratic than his lordship himself. And he read
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: the court news every morning and followed all the doings
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: of the House of Lords. And about ten years after,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: when Dick, who had finished his education and was going
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: to visit his brother in California, asked the good Grocer
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: if he did not wish to return to America. He
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: shook his head seriously. Not to live there, he said,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: not to live there. I want to be near him
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: and sort of look after him. It's a good enough
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: country for them, that's young and stirring, but there's faults
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: in it. There's not an ant sstor among them, nor
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: an earl. End of chapter fifteen, end of Little Lord
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Fauntleroy by Francis Hodgson Burnett