"Martain Rattler" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ballantyne R.M)

her age; but she herself knew it, and felt it deeply - never so deeply, perhaps,
as when her orphan nephew Martin grew old enough to be put to school, and she
had not the wherewithal to send him. But love is quick-witted and resolute. A
residence of six years in Germany had taught her to knit stockings at a rate
that cannot be described, neither conceived unless seen. She knitted two dozen
pairs. The vicar took one dozen, the doctor took the other. The fact soon became
known. Shops were not numerous in the village in those days, and the wares they
supplied were only second-rate. Orders came pouring in; Mrs. Grumbit's
knitting-wires clicked, and her little old hands wagged with incomprehensible
rapidity and unflagging regularity ; and Martin Rattler was sent to school.
While occupied with her knitting she sat in a high backed chair in a very small
deep window, through which the sun streamed nearly the whole day, and out of
which there was the most charming view imaginable of the gardens and orchards of
the villagers, with a little dancing brook in the midst, and the green fields of
the farmers beyond, studded with sheep and cattle and knolls of woodland, and
bounded in the far distance by the bright blue sea. It was a lovely scene, such
an one as causes the eye to brighten and the heart to melt as we gaze upon it
and think, perchance, of its Creator.
Yes, it was a scene worth looking at; but Mrs. Grumbit never looked at it, for
the simple reason that she could not have seen it if she had. Half way across
her own little parlour was the extent of her natural vision. By the aid of her
spectacles and a steady, concentrated effort she could see the fireplace at the
other end of the room, and the portrait of her deceased husband, who had been a
sea captain, and the white kitten that usually sat on the rug before the fire.
To be sure she saw them very indistinctly. The picture was a hazy blue patch,
which was the captain's coat ; with a white patch down the middle of it, which
was his waist coat ; and a yellow ball on the top of it, which was his head. It
was rather an indistinct and generalized view, no doubt, but she saw it, and
that was a great comfort.
[CONTENTS]



CHAPTER II
In disgrace
FIRE WAS the cause of Martin's getting into disgrace at school for the first
time ; and this is how it happened.
"Go and poke the fire, Martin Rattler," said the schoolmaster, "and put on a bit
of coal ; and see that you don't send the sparks flying about the floor."
Martin sprang with alacrity to obey, for he was standing tip with the class at
the time, and was glad of the temporary relaxation. He stirred the fire with
great care, and put on several pieces of coal very slowly, and rearranged them
two or three times ; after which he stirred the fire a little more, and examined
it care fully to see that it was all right. But he did not seem quite satisfied,
and was proceeding to re-adjust the coals when Bob Croaker, one of the big boys,
who was a bullying, ill-tempered fellow, and had a spite against Martin, called
out
"Please, sir, Rattler's playin' at the fire."
"Come back to your place, sir! " cried the master sternly.
Martin returned in haste and resumed his position in the class. As he did so he