Chapter 10 – - The Other Professor

"He's ever so unkind!" Bruno mournfully added. " They's all unkind to us, now that Father's gone. The Lion were much nicer!"

 

" Doos oo always confuses two animals together?" Bruno asked.

"I know I did," Bruno replied very humbly. " I quite forgotted I wasn't Sylvie. Only I fought he might be rarver fierce!"

"If he's always as sleepy as that," Bruno remarked, " a course he's dreamy!"

"But what are we to do?" said the Professor. "You see he's quite wrapped up in the book!"

 

He struck the note again, and appealed to Bruno, who was standing at his side. "Did I sing it like that, my child?"

"No, oo didn't," Bruno replied with great decision. " It were more like a duck."

Chapter 11 - Peter and Paul

. "What a many verses it was!" he whispered.

 

Chapter 12 - A Musical Gardener

"If oo cuts it off, will oo give it to me, please? Bruno thoughtfully added.

 

"And that somefin would have to go by the post, what ever it was!" Bruno eagerly exclaimed. "Suppose it was a cow! Wouldn't it be dreadful for the other things!"

 

" It hasn't got no water in it!" Bruno explained to him, pulling his sleeve to attract his attention.

 

The Other Professor regarded him with some anxiety. "The smaller animal ought to go to bed at once," he said with an air of authority.

"Why at once?" said the Professor.

"Because he can't go at twice," said the Other Professor.

The Professor gently clapped his hands. 'Isn't he wonderful!" he said to Sylvie. "Nobody else could have thought of the reason, so quick. Why, of course he ca'n't go at twice! It would hurt him to be divided."

This remark woke up Bruno, suddenly and completely. "I don't want to be divided," he said decisively.

 

"Let me explain it to you. If A B were to be divided into two parts at C --"

"It would be drownded," Bruno pronounced confidently.

The Other Professor gasped. "What would be drownded?"

"Why the bumble-bee, of course!" said Bruno. "And the two bits would sink down in the sea!"

 

"What did you have for dinner to-day?" said the Professor.

"A little piece of a dead crow," was Bruno's mournful reply.

"He means rook-pie," Sylvie explained.

"It were a dead crow," Bruno persisted. "And there were a apple-pudding --and Uggug ate it all--and I got nuffin but a crust! And I asked for a orange--and--didn't get it!"

 

Chapter 13 - A Visit to Dogland ГЛАВА XIII Доглэнд — Страна Псов

"It looks a very comfable house," Bruno said, as we turned into the road leading up to it. "I doos hope the Dogs will be kind to us, I is so tired and hungry!"

" That were a dear dog!" Bruno exclaimed. " Has we to go far, Sylvie?I's tired!"

 

Chapter 14 - Fairy-Style

"What's your name, my little man?"

"What's oors?" he said, without looking up.

"Oo're big enough to be two Dukes," said the little creature. "I suppose oo 're Sir Something, then?"

"Only I wiss I could think of somefin to vex her more than this. Oo don't know how hard it is to make her angry!"

"What is oo talking about?" Bruno impatiently interrupted me.

"Oh, let's fetch 'em! " cried Bruno, giving a little skip into the air. "Here! Catch hold of my hand, and I'll help oo along. The grass is rather thick down that way."

"Oor face is large and round like the moon," Bruno answered, looking at me thoughtfully. " It doosn't shine quite so bright--but it's more cleaner. "

 

I couldn't help smiling at this. "You know I sometimes wash my face, Bruno. The moon never does that."

"Oh, doosn't she though!" cried Bruno; and he leant forwards and added in a solemn whisper, "The moon's face gets dirtier and dirtier every night, till it's black all across. And then, when it's dirty all over--so--" (he passed his hand across his own rosy cheeks as he spoke) "then she washes it."

 

"Oh, Bruno, you shouldn't do that!" I cried.

"Don't you know that's revenge? And revenge is a wicked, cruel, dangerous thing!"

" River-edge?" said Bruno. "What a funny word! I suppose oo call it cruel and dangerous 'cause, if oo wented too far and tumbleded in, oo'd get drownded."

 

"Yes, let's consider," said Bruno, putting his thumb into his mouth again, and sitting down upon a dead mouse.

"What do you keep that mouse for?" I said. "You should either bury it, or else throw it into the brook."

"Why, it's to measure with!" cried Bruno.

"How ever would oo do a garden without one? We make each bed three mouses and a half long, and two mouses wide."