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- Кеннет Грэм
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- Дни грёз
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- Стр. 1/57
Days of Dreams
In
the
matter
of
general
culture
and
attainments
,
we
youngsters
stood
on
pretty
level
ground
.
True
,
it
was
always
happening
that
one
of
us
would
be
singled
out
at
any
moment
,
freakishly
,
and
without
regard
to
his
own
preferences
,
to
wrestle
with
the
inflections
of
some
idiotic
language
long
rightly
dead
;
while
another
,
from
some
fancied
artistic
tendency
which
always
failed
to
justify
itself
,
might
be
told
off
without
warning
to
hammer
out
scales
and
exercises
,
and
to
bedew
the
senseless
keys
with
tears
of
weariness
or
of
revolt
.
But
in
subjects
common
to
either
sex
,
and
held
to
be
necessary
even
for
him
whose
ambition
soared
no
higher
than
to
crack
a
whip
in
a
circus
-
ring
—
in
geography
,
for
instance
,
arithmetic
,
or
the
weary
doings
of
kings
and
queens
—
each
would
have
scorned
to
excel
.
And
,
indeed
,
whatever
our
individual
gifts
,
a
general
dogged
determination
to
shirk
and
to
evade
kept
us
all
at
much
the
same
dead
level
,
—
a
level
of
ignorance
tempered
by
insubordination
.
Fortunately
there
existed
a
wide
range
of
subjects
,
of
healthier
tone
than
those
already
enumerated
,
in
which
we
were
free
to
choose
for
ourselves
,
and
which
we
would
have
scorned
to
consider
education
;
and
in
these
we
freely
followed
each
his
own
particular
line
,
often
attaining
an
amount
of
special
knowledge
which
struck
our
ignorant
elders
as
simply
uncanny
.
For
Edward
,
the
uniforms
,
accoutrements
,
colours
,
and
mottoes
of
the
regiments
composing
the
British
Army
had
a
special
glamour
.
In
the
matter
of
facings
he
was
simply
faultless
;
among
chevrons
,
badges
,
medals
,
and
stars
,
he
moved
familiarly
;
he
even
knew
the
names
of
most
of
the
colonels
in
command
;
and
he
would
squander
sunny
hours
prone
on
the
lawn
,
heedless
of
challenge
from
bird
or
beast
,
poring
over
a
tattered
Army
List
.
My
own
accomplishment
was
of
another
character
—
took
,
as
it
seemed
to
me
,
a
wider
and
a
more
untrammelled
range
.
Dragoons
might
have
swaggered
in
Lincoln
green
,
riflemen
might
have
donned
sporrans
over
tartan
trews
,
without
exciting
notice
or
comment
from
me
.
But
did
you
seek
precise
information
as
to
the
fauna
of
the
American
continent
,
then
you
had
come
to
the
right
shop
.
Where
and
why
the
bison
“
wallowed
”
;
how
beaver
were
to
be
trapped
and
wild
turkeys
stalked
;
the
grizzly
and
how
to
handle
him
,
and
the
pretty
pressing
ways
of
the
constrictor
,
—
in
fine
,
the
haunts
and
the
habits
of
all
that
burrowed
,
strutted
,
roared
,
or
wriggled
between
the
Atlantic
and
the
Pacific
,
—
all
this
knowledge
I
took
for
my
province
.
By
the
others
my
equipment
was
fully
recognized
.
Supposing
a
book
with
a
bear
-
hunt
in
it
made
its
way
into
the
house
,
and
the
atmosphere
was
electric
with
excitement
;
still
,
it
was
necessary
that
I
should
first
decide
whether
the
slot
had
been
properly
described
and
properly
followed
up
,
ere
the
work
could
be
stamped
with
full
approval
.
A
writer
might
have
won
fame
throughout
the
civilized
globe
for
his
trappers
and
his
realistic
backwoods
,
and
all
went
for
nothing
.
If
his
pemmican
were
not
properly
compounded
I
damned
his
achievement
,
and
it
was
heard
no
more
of
.
Harold
was
hardly
old
enough
to
possess
a
special
subject
of
his
own
.
He
had
his
instincts
,
indeed
,
and
at
bird
’
s
-
nesting
they
almost
amounted
to
prophecy
.
Where
we
others
only
suspected
eggs
,
surmised
possible
eggs
,
hinted
doubtfully
at
eggs
in
the
neighbourhood
,
Harold
went
straight
for
the
right
bush
,
bough
,
or
hole
as
if
he
carried
a
divining
-
rod
.
But
this
faculty
belonged
to
the
class
of
mere
gifts
,
and
was
not
to
be
ranked
with
Edward
’
s
lore
regarding
facings
,
and
mine
as
to
the
habits
of
prairie
-
dogs
,
both
gained
by
painful
study
and
extensive
travel
in
those
“
realms
of
gold
,
”
the
Army
List
and
Ballantyne
.
Selina
’
s
subject
,
quite
unaccountably
,
happened
to
be
naval
history
.
There
is
no
laying
down
rules
as
to
subjects
;
you
just
possess
them
—
or
rather
,
they
possess
you
—
and
their
genesis
or
protoplasm
is
rarely
to
be
tracked
down
.
Selina
had
never
so
much
as
seen
the
sea
;
but
for
that
matter
neither
had
I
ever
set
foot
on
the
American
continent
,
the
by
-
ways
of
which
I
knew
so
intimately
.
And
just
as
I
,
if
set
down
without
warning
in
the
middle
of
the
Rocky
Mountains
,
would
have
been
perfectly
at
home
,
so
Selina
,
if
a
genie
had
dropped
her
suddenly
on
Portsmouth
Hard
,
could
have
given
points
to
most
of
its
frequenters
.
From
the
days
of
Blake
down
to
the
death
of
Nelson
(
she
never
condescended
further
)
Selina
had
taken
spiritual
part
in
every
notable
engagement
of
the
British
Navy
;
and
even
in
the
dark
days
when
she
had
to
pick
up
skirts
and
flee
,
chased
by
an
ungallant
De
Ruyter
or
Van
Tromp
,
she
was
yet
cheerful
in
the
consciousness
that
ere
long
she
would
be
gleefully
hammering
the
fleets
of
the
world
,
in
the
glorious
times
to
follow
.
When
that
golden
period
arrived
,
Selina
was
busy
indeed
;
and
,
while
loving
best
to
stand
where
the
splinters
were
flying
the
thickest
.
she
was
also
a
careful
and
critical
student
of
seamanship
and
of
manoeuvre
.
She
knew
the
order
in
which
the
great
line
-
of
-
battle
ships
moved
into
action
,
the
vessels
they
respectively
engaged
,
the
moment
when
each
let
go
its
anchor
,
and
which
of
them
had
a
spring
on
its
cable
(
while
not
understanding
the
phrase
,
she
carefully
noted
the
fact
)
;
and
she
habitually
went
into
an
engagement
on
the
quarter
-
deck
of
the
gallant
ship
that
reserved
its
fire
the
longest
.
At
the
time
of
Selina
’
s
weird
seizure
I
was
unfortunately
away
from
home
,
on
a
loathsome
visit
to
an
aunt
;
and
my
account
is
therefore
feebly
compounded
from
hearsay
.
It
was
an
absence
I
never
ceased
to
regret
—
scoring
it
up
,
with
a
sense
of
injury
,
against
the
aunt
.
There
was
a
splendid
uselessness
about
the
whole
performance
that
specially
appealed
to
my
artistic
sense
.
That
it
should
have
been
Selina
,
too
,
who
should
break
out
this
way
—
Selina
,
who
had
just
become
a
regular
subscriber
to
the
“
Young
Ladies
’
Journal
,
”
and
who
allowed
herself
to
be
taken
out
to
strange
teas
with
an
air
of
resignation
palpably
assumed
—
this
was
a
special
joy
,
and
served
to
remind
me
that
much
of
this
dreaded
convention
that
was
creeping
over
us
might
be
,
after
all
,
only
veneer
.
Edward
also
was
absent
,
getting
licked
into
shape
at
school
;
but
to
him
the
loss
was
nothing
.
With
his
stern
practical
bent
he
wouldn
’
t
have
seen
any
sense
in
it
—
to
recall
one
of
his
favourite
expressions
.
To
Harold
,
however
,
for
whom
the
gods
had
always
cherished
a
special
tenderness
,
it
was
granted
,
not
only
to
witness
,
but
also
,
priestlike
,
to
feed
the
sacred
fire
itself
.
And
if
at
the
time
he
paid
the
penalty
exacted
by
the
sordid
unimaginative
ones
who
temporarily
rule
the
roast
,
he
must
ever
after
,
one
feels
sure
,
have
carried
inside
him
some
of
the
white
gladness
of
the
acolyte
who
,
greatly
privileged
,
has
been
permitted
to
swing
a
censer
at
the
sacring
of
the
very
Mass
.
October
was
mellowing
fast
,
and
with
it
the
year
itself
;
full
of
tender
hints
,
in
woodland
and
hedgerow
,
of
a
course
well
-
nigh
completed
.
From
all
sides
that
still
afternoon
you
caught
the
quick
breathing
and
sob
of
the
runner
nearing
the
goal
.
Preoccupied
and
possessed
,
Selina
had
strayed
down
the
garden
and
out
into
the
pasture
beyond
,
where
,
on
a
bit
of
rising
ground
that
dominated
the
garden
on
one
side
and
the
downs
with
the
old
coach
-
road
on
the
other
,
she
had
cast
herself
down
to
chew
the
cud
of
fancy
.
