Under the Lilacs - Chapter 6

After supper that night, Bab and Betty sat in the old porch playing with Josephus and Belinda, and discussing the events of the day; for the appearance of the strange boy and his dog had been a most exciting occurrence in their quiet lives. They had seen nothing of him since morning, as he took his meals at the Squire ¹'s, and was at work with Pat in a distant field when the children passed. Sancho had stuck closely to his master, evidently rather bewildered by the new order of things, and bound to see that no harm happened to Ben., ,"I wish they'd come. It's sundown, and I heard the cows mooing, so I know they have gone home," said Betty, impatiently; for she regarded the new-comer in the light of an entertaining book, and wished to read on as fast as possible., ,"I'm going to learn the signs he makes when he wants Sancho to dance; then we can have fun with him whenever we like. He's the dearest dog I ever saw!" answered Bab, who was fonder of animals than her sister., , ,"Please to locate, gentlemen; please to locate. The performance is about to begin with the great Flyin' Coopid act, in which Master Bloomsbury has appeared before the crowned heads of Europe. Pronounced by all beholders the most remarkable ² youthful progidy agoin'. Hooray! here we are!", ,Having rattled ³ off the familiar speech in Mr. Smithers's elegant manner, Ben begin to cut up such capers ⁴ that even a party of dignified ⁵ hens, going down the avenue to bed, paused to look on with clucks of astonishment ⁶, evidently fancying that salt had set him to fluttering and tumbling as it did them. Never had the old gate beheld ⁷ such antics, though it had seen gay doings in its time; for of all the boys who had climbed over it, not one had ever stood on his head upon each of the big balls which ornamented ⁸ the posts, hung by his heels from the arch, gone round and round like a wheel with the bar for an axis ⁹, played a tattoo ¹⁰ with his toes while holding on by his chin, walked about the wall on his hands, or closed the entertainment by festooning himself in an airy posture ¹¹ over the side of the lantern frame, and kissing his hand to the audience as a well-bred Cupid is supposed to do on making his bow., ,The squire was hard at work at Bristol.乡绅在布里斯托尔热衷于他的工作。,She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步 。