Denny is learning to say what he thinks, just like other boys. He would never have learnt such words as ‘ripping’ and ‘jolly fine’ while under the auntal tyranny.
Since then I have read The Daisy Chain. It is a first-rate book for girls and little boys.
But we did not want to talk about The Daisy Chain just then, so Oswald said—
‘But what’s your lark?’ Denny got pale pink and said—
‘Don’t hurry me. I’ll tell you directly. Let me think a minute.’
Then he shut his pale pink eyelids a moment in thought, and then opened them and stood up on the straw and said very fast—
‘Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears, or if not ears, pots. You know Albert’s uncle said they were going to open the barrow, to look for Roman remains to-morrow. Don’t you think it seems a pity they shouldn’t find any?’
‘Perhaps they will,’ Dora said.
But Oswald saw, and he said ‘Primus! Go ahead, old man.’
The Dentist went ahead.