Pray, my dears, don't look so foolish and deplorable,
but get the young people together, and let us make a start. Mr. Flaps is
a person of strong common sense, a quality for which I myself have
always been remarkable, and I thoroughly endorse and support his
excellent advice, of which I am the best judge. I have very much
regretted of late to observe a tendency in this family (I say a
tendency, for I hope it goes no further) to undervalue Mr. Flaps, and
even (I hardly like to allude to such reprehensible and disgusting
absurdity) to recall the memory of a vulgar red-haired impostor, who
gained a brief entrance into our family circle. I am not consulted as I
should be in these fluctuations of opinion, but there are occasions when
it is necessary that the head of a family should exercise his discretion
and his authority, and, so to speak, put down his claw. I put down my
claw. We are going to Mr. Flaps' farmyard. Cock-a-doodle-doo
Cock-a-doodle-doo!"
Now, when the head of a family says "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" there is
nothing more to be said. So to the farmyard the whole lot of them went,
and were there before the sun got one golden hair of his head over the
roof of the big barn.
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