MR. BOTT LEAPED AND SKIPPED AND GAMBOLLED AND
SPLASHED. HE WAS DETERMINED TO OBEY TO THE FULL
THE SPECIALIST’S ADVICE ABOUT PHYSICAL EXERCISES.
The next day was bright and sunny. Mr. Bott almost enjoyed his morning exercises. He thought occasionally with indignation of the events of the previous morning. That dreadful boy ... anyway he’d shown him—he wasn’t likely to come again after yesterday. And most certainly Bob Andrews should go ... he’d like to see any fool boy dictating to him. But Mr. Bott could not feel bad-tempered for long. It was such a bright sunny morning and he’d just discovered himself to be ⅞ of an inch thinner round the waist than this time last week.... He leapt and skipped and gambolled and splashed. Once he imagined he saw the horrible boy’s face in the bushes, but looking again he came to the conclusion that he must have been mistaken. Once too, he thought he heard a snap or a click as if someone had stepped on a twig, but listening again he came to the conclusion that he must have been mistaken. He enjoyed his exercises for the next two mornings as well. But on the third morning as soon as he had come down, dressed and glowing, to his study after his exercises, to look at his letters before breakfast the butler threw open the door and announced:
“They said it was himportant business, sir, an’ you knew about it. I ’ope it’s all right.”
Then four boys walked up to his desk. One was the boy who had taken his overcoat up a tree two days before. The butler had gone. Mr. Bott, sputtering with rage, reached out to the bell. (He was going to say “Kick these boys out”) when the worst of the boys—the devil—laid half a dozen snapshots on his desk. Mr. Bott looked at them, and then sat rigid and motionless, his hand still outstretched towards the bell.
Then his rubicund face grew pale.
The first snapshot showed Mr. Bott, short, fat, and (except for his microscopic bathing drawers) naked, skipping by the lake. The angle of his legs was irresistibly comic. The second snapshot showed Mr. Bott, still short and fat and almost naked, balancing himself on one arm and one leg, the others stuck out wildly in the air, his eyes staring, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. The third snapshot showed Mr. Bott in the act of over-balancing in a rather difficult exercise. That was the gem of the collection. The fourth showed Mr. Bott lying on his back and kicking his legs in the air. The fifth showed Mr. Bott standing on two very stiff arms and stiff legs with an expression of acute suffering on his face. The sixth showed Mr. Bott splashing in the lake.
Mr. Bott took out his handkerchief and wiped away the perspiration that was standing out on his brow.
“If you burn ’em,” said William firmly, “we can get more. We’ve got the films and we can make hundreds more—and jolly good ones too.”
Mr. Bott began to stammer.