American library books ยป Humor ยป The Adventures of Sally by P. G. Wodehouse (good books for 7th graders .TXT) ๐Ÿ“•

Read book online ยซThe Adventures of Sally by P. G. Wodehouse (good books for 7th graders .TXT) ๐Ÿ“•ยป.   Author   -   P. G. Wodehouse



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do you won't have any excuse for not telling me your life-history, and you wouldn't believe how inquisitive I am. Well, in the first place, I live in America. I'm over here on a holiday. And it's the first real holiday I've had in three yearsโ€”since I left home, in fact.โ€ Sally paused. โ€œI ran away from home,โ€ she said.

โ€œGood egg!โ€ said Ginger Kemp.

โ€œI beg your pardon?โ€

โ€œI mean, quite right. I bet you were quite right.โ€

โ€œWhen I say home,โ€ Sally went on, โ€œit was only a sort of imitation home, you know. One of those just-as-good homes which are never as satisfactory as the real kind. My father and mother both died a good many years ago. My brother and I were dumped down on the reluctant doorstep of an uncle.โ€

โ€œUncles,โ€ said Ginger Kemp, feelingly, โ€œare the devil. I've got an... but I'm interrupting you.โ€

โ€œMy uncle was our trustee. He had control of all my brother's money and mine till I was twenty-one. My brother was to get his when he was twenty-five. My poor father trusted him blindly, and what do you think happened?โ€

โ€œGood Lord! The blighter embezzled the lot?โ€

โ€œNo, not a cent. Wasn't it extraordinary! Have you ever heard of a blindly trusted uncle who was perfectly honest? Well, mine was. But the trouble was that, while an excellent man to have looking after one's money, he wasn't a very lovable character. He was very hard. Hard! He was as hard asโ€”well, nearly as hard as this seat. He hated poor Fill...โ€

โ€œPhil?โ€

โ€œI broke it to you just now that my brother's name was Fillmore.โ€

โ€œOh, your brother. Oh, ah, yes.โ€

โ€œHe was always picking on poor Fill. And I'm bound to say that Fill rather laid himself out as what you might call a pickee. He was always getting into trouble. One day, about three years ago, he was expelled from Harvard, and my uncle vowed he would have nothing more to do with him. So I said, if Fill left, I would leave. And, as this seemed to be my uncle's idea of a large evening, no objection was raised, and Fill and I departed. We went to New York, and there we've been ever since. About six months' ago Fill passed the twenty-five mark and collected his money, and last month I marched past the given point and got mine. So it all ends happily, you see. Now tell me about yourself.โ€

โ€œBut, I say, you know, dash it, you've skipped a lot. I mean to say, you must have had an awful time in New York, didn't you? How on earth did you get along?โ€

โ€œOh, we found work. My brother tried one or two things, and finally became an assistant stage-manager with some theatre people. The only thing I could do, having been raised in enervating luxury, was ballroom dancing, so I ball-room danced. I got a job at a place in Broadway called 'The Flower Garden' as what is humorously called an 'instructress,' as if anybody could 'instruct' the men who came there. One was lucky if one saved one's life and wasn't quashed to death.โ€

โ€œHow perfectly foul!โ€

โ€œOh, I don't know. It was rather fun for a while. Still,โ€ said Sally, meditatively, โ€œI'm not saying I could have held out much longer: I was beginning to give. I suppose I've been trampled underfoot by more fat men than any other girl of my age in America. I don't know why it was, but every man who came in who was a bit overweight seemed to make for me by instinct. That's why I like to sit on the sands here and watch these Frenchmen bathing. It's just heavenly to lie back and watch a two hundred and fifty pound man, coming along and feel that he isn't going to dance with me.โ€

โ€œBut, I say! How absolutely rotten it must have been for you!โ€

โ€œWell, I'll tell you one thing. It's going to make me a very domesticated wife one of these days. You won't find me gadding about in gilded jazz-palaces! For me, a little place in the country somewhere, with my knitting and an Elsie book, and bed at half-past nine! And now tell me the story of your life. And make it long because I'm perfectly certain there's going to be no relief-expedition. I'm sure the last dweller under this roof came in years ago. We shall be here till morning.โ€

โ€œI really think we had better shout, you know.โ€

โ€œAnd lose Jules his job? Never!โ€

โ€œWell, of course, I'm sorry for poor old Jules' troubles, but I hate to think of you having to...โ€

โ€œNow get on with the story,โ€ said Sally.

6

Ginger Kemp exhibited some of the symptoms of a young bridegroom called upon at a wedding-breakfast to respond to the toast. He moved his feet restlessly and twisted his fingers.

โ€œI hate talking about myself, you know,โ€ he said.

โ€œSo I supposed,โ€ said Sally. โ€œThat's why I gave you my autobiography first, to give you no chance of backing out. Don't be such a shrinking violet. We're all shipwrecked mariners here. I am intensely interested in your narrative. And, even if I wasn't, I'd much rather listen to it than to Jules' snoring.โ€

โ€œHe is snoring a bit, what? Does it annoy you? Shall I stir him?โ€

โ€œYou seem to have an extraordinary brutal streak in your nature,โ€ said Sally. โ€œYou appear to think of nothing else but schemes for harassing poor Jules. Leave him alone for a second, and start telling me about yourself.โ€

โ€œWhere shall I start?โ€

โ€œWell, not with your childhood, I think. We'll skip that.โ€

โ€œWell...โ€ Ginger Kemp knitted his brow, searching for a dramatic opening. โ€œWell, I'm more or less what you might call an orphan, like you. I mean to say, both my people are dead and all that sort of thing.โ€

โ€œThanks for explaining. That has made it quite clear.โ€

โ€œI can't remember my mother. My father died when I was in my last year at Cambridge. I'd been having a most awfully good time at the 'varsity,'โ€ said Ginger, warming to his theme. โ€œNot thick, you know, but good. I'd got my rugger and boxing blues and I'd just been picked for scrum-half for England against the North in the first trial match, and between ourselves it really did look as if I was more or less of a snip for my international.โ€

Sally gazed at him wide eyed.

โ€œIs that good or bad?โ€ she asked.

โ€œEh?โ€

โ€œAre you reciting a catalogue of your crimes, or do you expect me to get up and cheer? What is a rugger blue, to start with?โ€

โ€œWell, it's... it's a rugger blue, you know.โ€

โ€œOh, I see,โ€ said Sally. โ€œYou

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