Читать книгу My Naughty Little Sister - Dorothy Edwards - Страница 8

I hope you aren’t a shy child. My naughty little sister wasn’t shy, but she used to pretend to be sometimes, and when nice aunts and uncles came to see us, she wouldn’t say, ‘How do you do!’ or shake hands or anything, and if they tried to talk to her she would run off down the garden and hide among the currant bushes until they went away.

But my naughty little sister talked and talked when she wanted to. She talked to the milkman and the baker and the coalman and the window-cleaner man, and all the other people who came to the door, and when they came she got terribly in their way, because she talked to them so much, but they all liked my naughty little sister.

One day she upset all the milkman’s bottles, and he only said, ‘Never mind, no use crying over spilt milk,’ and another day she shut the cellar up just as the coalman was going to tip the coal in, and he only said, ‘Well, well now, there’s a job for your father!’ and she climbed up the ladder after the window-cleaning man and then she cried because she was afraid to come down, but he only said, ‘There! There! Don’t cry, dearie,’ and he lent her his leathery thing to wipe her tears on.

So you see, they liked my naughty little sister very much, but wasn’t she naughty?

Well now, one day my poor naughty little sister wasn’t very well. She sat in her chair and looked very miserable and said, ‘I’m not a very well girl today.’

So my mother said, ‘You shall go to bed and have a hot drink, and a hotwater-bottle and we shall send for the doctor to come and see what’s wrong with you.’

And my naughty little sister said, ‘No doctor! Nasty doctor!’ Wasn’t she a silly cuckoo? Fancy saying, ‘No doctor’ when she wasn’t well!

But my mother said, ‘He’s a nice doctor. You must tell him how you feel, and then he will make you all better.’

Then my naughty little sister said, ‘I’m too shy. I won’t talk to him.’ She said it in a cross, growly voice, ‘I won’t talk to him!’

So my naughty little sister went to bed, and she had a hot-water-bottle and a hot drink. Also, she had her best books, and all her dolls and her teddy bears, but she felt so not-well that she didn’t want any of these things at all.

Presently my naughty little sister heard a knock on the front door, and she said, ‘No doctor,’ and hid her face under the sheet.

But it wasn’t the doctor, it was the nice milkman, and when he heard my naughty little sister wasn’t well, he sent her his love, and a notebook with lines on, and a blue pencil to write with.

Then my naughty little sister heard the front door again, and she said, ‘No doctor,’ again, and hid her face again, but it was the nice baker, and he sent my naughty little sister his love and a little spongy cake in case she fancied it.

Then she heard the front door again, and she said, ‘No doctor – nasty doctor,’ but it was the nice coalman, and he sent my naughty little sister his love and a red rose from his cap that smelt rosy and coaly.

After that my naughty little sister began to feel a much happier girl, and she didn’t hide her face any more, so that when the window-cleaner man came to clean the window, she could see him smiling through the glass, and when he popped his head in and asked, ‘How’s the invalid?’ my naughty little sister said, ‘I’m not a well girl today.’

The window-cleaner man said, ‘Well, the doctor will soon put you right.’

And my naughty little sister watched the window-cleaner man rubbing away with the leathery thing, and then she said, ‘No doctor,’ to the window-cleaner man.

‘No doctor,’ she said, out loud.

‘Yes doctor,’ said the window-cleaner man.

‘No doctor,’ said my naughty little sister.

‘That’s a silly idea you’ve got,’ said the window-cleaner man. ‘The doctor will make you a well girl again.’

Then my naughty little sister began to cry and cry. ‘No doctor, no doctor. I’m too shy.’ Like that, in that miserable way.

And then the window-cleaner man said, ‘What a pity you won’t have the doctor, because you won’t see his listening-thing, or his glass-stick-thing to pop under your tongue, or the doctor’s bag that he keeps his little bottles in.’

Then my naughty little sister stopped crying and said, ‘What listening-thing? What stick-thing?’

‘Ah,’ said the window-cleaner man, ‘I shan’t tell you that. Why should I? But it’s a pity you won’t see that doctor and find out for yourself.’ That’s what the window-cleaner man said.

Then the window-cleaner man went away, and took his ladder with him, and my naughty little sister stayed in her bed and thought and thought.

And presently, when she heard a knock at the front door, my naughty little sister didn’t say, ‘No doctor,’ and hide her face under the sheet, even though it really was the doctor this time. She didn’t do anything silly like that at all.

My naughty little sister waited and waited until she heard my mother coming upstairs with the doctor, and when the doctor came into her bedroom my naughty little sister didn’t say, ‘Go away,’ or pretend to be shy, or scream, or do any of the bad things she could do.

She said, ‘Hallo, doctor,’ and then the doctor said, ‘Hallo, and how are you today?’ and my naughty little sister said, ‘I’m not a well girl today.’

Then she said, ‘Have you got your doctor’s bag, and your listening-thing, and your glass-stick-thing to pop into my mouth?’ and the doctor said, ‘Yes, I have.’

Then my naughty little sister was pleased as pleased, and she liked the doctor so much after all, that she took all the medicine he sent her without being cross once, and got a well girl again very quickly.