11 July 2008 - Our First Day Out ~ Chapter 4
"And today," said Anne triumphantly, "we shall go OUT!"
We were all three standing on the verandah in the early morning sun. It was exactly six o'clock, I could tell; there was a clock in the hall. Just then Uncle came round the corner. I was going to the other end, and it was too late to stop; I'd crashed into him and he fell backward onto the verandah, knocking both his elbows! If he had been an enormously huge man, he would have kept on crashing right through, and would have landed in the middle of the gorse bush just below the place he was lying.
Instead of being angry, he picked himself up, rubbed his elbows, and grinned; he was none the worse for his fall.
"Good shot!" he said, which was quite strange. I never would have expected he'd want to hurt himself. He was up, trotted round the other coener, and left me and Anne looking so dumbfounded that Hazel remarked:
"Y'ought to have a spanking, Laura Stuart."
"So ought you," I said.
"I don't!"
"You do!"
"Aw, stop arguin' you two." Anne was ready to join the conversation, " 'member we're goin' out."
Hazel recovered herself and with a last vindictive "you do!" ran through the screen door, and into the bedroom. She came out soon enough, wearing a gingham brown dress. She was tying her bonnet strings round her chin.
"You oughta get ready too," she told us.
"Don't be silly, we're not goin' yet," I replied.
"Who says?"
"I do."
"Stop arguin' you two." Just then, Kat came though the door. She said, "We're going in a few minutes."
"Tol'ja." Hazel stood with her hands on her hips.
"Who cares?" replied Anne.
We were on our way. Quite soon we stopped at a shop. We went inside and while Kat and Uncle Herbert (he was with us too) looked for sugar, coffee, gruel, and navy beans, Anne and I explored the shop. I admired the thick sponge cakes in the bakery area, and begged Kat to buy some; she wouldn't.
I liked the toy shop and the blacksmith's (we went to have a look) but my favourite was the sweet shop! There were big round cannisters of jaffas and aniseed balls; there were tall, thin tins full of stick candy; but best of all were the juicy, chewy sweets wrapped in paper, and the toffees. Kat bought some jaffas and orange flavoured candy; to everyone's delight (even Uncle Herbert's) she got a whole bag of the wrapped sweets. I could hardly wait to get home and taste them; but Uncle had a few more purchases to make, and so did Kat.
When we were at last home, I asked if we might have a sweet.
"No," said Cook, "not til afternoon tea time." So we waited, and waited, and waited, til at last it was time. Kat poured out tea, and Cook served the raspberry muffins. She even let us get the sweets ourselves.
Altogether it had been a wonderful day out.
Comments
22 July 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Rebecca
Great Job!!!
