quotes_apr17_2011.htm

‘Moi! Je! Ich! Ego!’ gasped Stalky. ‘I waited till I couldn’t hear myself think, while you played the drum! Hid in the coal-locker—and tweaked Rabbits-Eggs—and Rabbits-Eggs rocked King. Wasn’t it beautiful? Did you hear the glass?’
‘Why, he—he—he,’ shrieked M‘Turk, one trembling finger pointed at Beetle.
‘Why, I—I—I was through it all,’ Beetle howled; ‘in his study, being jawed.’
‘Oh, my soul!’ said Stalky with a yell, disappearing under water.
‘The—the glass was nothing. Manders minor’s head’s cut open. La-la-lamp upset all over the rug. Blood on the books and papers. The gum! The gum! The gum! The ink! The ink! The ink! Oh, Lord!’

This is from “Slaves of the Lamp” in Stalky & Co.

Stalky & Co., rehearsing a pantomime, have been derided and ridiculed by King. Through an ingenious stratagem, Stalky arranges for ‘Rabbits Eggs’, the local carrier, to wreck King’s study by hurling flints through the window. Beetle is reporting to King at the time, and witnesses the destruction, with relish.

Framlynghame Admiral village is a good two miles from the station, and I waked the holy calm of the evening every step of that way with shouts and yells, casting myself down in the flank of the good green hedge when I was too weak to stand. There was an inn,—a blessed inn with a thatched roof, and peonies in the garden,—and I ordered myself an upper chamber in which the Foresters held their courts, for the laughter was not all out of me. A bewildered woman brought me ham and eggs, and I leaned out of the mullioned window, and laughed between mouthfuls.

This is from “My Sunday at Home” in The Day’s Work..

The scene is a remote country railway station platform. Through a misunderstanding a doctor has administered a powerful emetic to a massive navvy, with explosive results. The narrator has witnessed it all, and is rendered powerless by mirth.

They turned into the lane. “Heavens!” said Jimmy, brushing himself down. “Who’s that real man with the real head?” and we hurried after them, for they were running unsteadily, squeaking like rabbits as they ran. We overtook them in a little nut wood half a mile up the road, where they had turned aside, and were rolling. So we rolled with them, and ceased not till we had arrived at the extremity of exhaustion.

“You—you saw it all, then?” said Lord Lundie, rebuttoning his nineteen-inch collar.
“I saw it was a vital question from the first,” responded Penfentenyou, and blew his nose.

This is from “The Puzzler” in Actions and Reactions.

Three distinguished men, out on a weekend walk, encounter a fine ‘Monkey Puzzle’ tree, and wonder whether it would actually puzzle a monkey. An Italian organ-grinder appears on the scene, and the three entice his monkey to try to climb the tree, but unfortunately it breaks into an empty house through the window. They rescue the monkey, but are caught – like naughty schoolboys – by the lady of the house, who is just moving in, and is furious. Fortunately the narrator’s companion has the presence of mind to persuade her that the three have rescued her children from a dangerous beast.