Little Women - Chapter 45

I cannot feel that I have done my duty as humble ¹ historian of the March family, without devoting at least one chapter to the two most precious and important members of it. Daisy and Demi had now arrived at years of discretion ², for in this fast age babies of three or four assert their rights, and get them, too, which is more than many of their elders do. If there ever were a pair of twins in danger of being utterly ³ spoiled by adoration ⁴, it was these prattling ⁵ Brookes. Of course they were the most remarkable ⁶ children ever born, as will be shown when I mention that they walked at eight months, talked fluently at twelve months, and at two years they took their places at table, and behaved with a propriety ⁷ which charmed all beholders. At three, Daisy demanded a 'needler', and actually made a bag with four stitches in it. She likewise set up housekeeping in the sideboard, and managed a microscopic ⁸ cooking stove with a skill that brought tears of pride to Hannah's eyes, while Demi learned his letters with his grandfather, who invented a new mode of teaching the alphabet by forming letters with his arms and legs, thus uniting gymnastics for head and heels. The boy early developed a mechanical genius which delighted his father and distracted his mother, for he tried to imitate every machine he saw, and kept the nursery in a chaotic ⁹ condition, with his 'sewinsheen', a mysterious structure of string, chairs, clothespins, and spools ¹⁰, for wheels to go 'wound and wound'. Also a basket hung over the back of a chair, in which he vainly tried to hoist ¹¹ his too confiding ¹² sister, who, with feminine devotion, allowed her little head to be bumped till rescued, when the young inventor indignantly remarked, "Why, Marmar, dat's my lellywaiter, and me's trying to pull her up.", ,Though utterly unlike in character, the twins got on remarkably ¹³ well together, and seldom quarreled more than thrice a day. Of course, Demi tyrannized over Daisy, and gallantly ¹⁴ defended her from every other aggressor, while Daisy made a galley ¹⁵ slave of herself, and adored her brother as the one perfect being in the world. A rosy ¹⁶, chubby ¹⁷, sunshiny little soul was Daisy, who found her way to everybody's heart, and nestled there. One of the captivating children, who seem made to be kissed and cuddled, adorned ¹⁸ and adored like little goddesses, and produced for general approval on all festive ¹⁹ occasions. Her small virtues ²⁰ were so sweet that she would have been quite angelic if a few small naughtinesses had not kept her delightfully ²¹ human. It was all fair weather in her world, and every morning she scrambled ²² up to the window in her little nightgown to look out, and say, no matter whether it rained or shone, "Oh, pitty day, oh, pitty day!" Everyone was a friend, and she offered kisses to a stranger so confidingly ²³ that the most inveterate ²⁴ bachelor relented, and baby-lovers became faithful worshipers., ,"Me loves evvybody," she once said, opening her arms, with her spoon in one hand, and her mug in the other, as if eager to embrace and nourish the whole world., , ,Demi, like a true Yankee, was of an inquiring turn, wanting to know everything, and often getting much disturbed because he could not get satisfactory answers to his perpetual "What for?", ,He also possessed ²⁸ a philosophic ²⁹ bent ³⁰, to the great delight of his grandfather, who used to hold Socratic conversations with him, in which the precocious ³¹ pupil occasionally posed his teacher, to the undisguised satisfaction of the womenfolk., ,Defeat and failure make people humble.挫折与失败会使人谦卑。,You must show discretion in choosing your friend.你择友时必须慎重 。