The Art of Campfire Cooking 5 глава

The Santa Claus Wait

Christmas Eve is a special time for children. Every year they wait for their presents from Santa Claus. Magic is everywhere in Tim and Robert’s house which is decorated with greeting cards, candles and lights. The sweet smell of Mum’s homemade cookies also brings to mind the coming wonders.

Throughout the month before Christmas Tim and his brother Robert regularly made their beds, set the table and followed their parents’ instructions about the house. As usual, each of them wrote a letter to Santa to ask for a toy. They knew Santa wouldn’t visit naughty children.

The same thing happened each year until the brothers were nine. They suddenly began to doubt that Santa could decorate their tree and millions more trees in a single night. It also seemed hard for Santa to deliver all the gifts before daybreak. Besides, they kept asking Dad how Santa could get inside their house without a chimney!

Dad usually answered that Santa would surely come, but that the children should be good and go to bed early. So on Christmas Eve, after Mum had checked that there was enough food left for Santa, the boys were sent to bed as usual. Robert was soon asleep, but Tim silently lay in bed, hoping to hear Santa coming. It seemed the longest night of Tim’s life.

In the early morning, when the other members of the family were still asleep, Tim bravely went to the living room to check for presents from Santa. When he switched on the light, he cried “Wow! He’s come!” In the room the Christmas tree stood in the middle of a big platform that looked like a small town with a toy railroad. It was unbelievable: a toy wonderland!

Tim spent an hour among the toys and then decided to wake up Robert and his parents to see the presents. While running upstairs he saw that the cookies had disappeared. In excitement he went into his parents’ bedroom but didn’t notice that they seemed a little bit more tired than usual.

“Mum! Dad! Quick! Robert! It’s fantastic!” he shouted. Everybody went down. Robert immediately saw his new car. It was wonderful. Poor Robert was upset because the car wouldn’t run. Dad said he couldn't understand why the car wouldn't start. The batteries in the car had been absolutely new.

He didn’t know Tim had turned on the car and had forgotten about it when he was checking out other gifts earlier. Within that hour the batteries died, in those times they didn't last long. Tim kept silent as he didn’t want to be punished on Christmas Day.

A Model Millionaire

Hugh Erskine was a charming young man, with brown hair and a clear-cut profile. After his father’s death, he inherited only an old cavalry sword and fifteen war books. To earn his living, Hugh had tried selling tea, then working at the stock exchange, but hadn’t succeeded. He had to live on the little money he managed to earn. It was no more than a few hundred pounds.

To make matters worse he fell in love with Laura Merton. Hugh won Laura’s affection and they were the nicest couple in London. Laura’s father was very fond of Hugh, however, he said he could only let his daughter marry Hugh when the young man got ten thousand pounds. It was an enormous sum for Hugh.

One morning, on his way to Laura’s house, Hugh dropped in to see a great friend of his, Alan Trevor. Alan was a brilliant artist: a real master. His paintings were wonderful and sold very successfully.

When Hugh came in, he found Trevor finishing a life-size picture of a beggar-man. The beggar himself was standing on a platform in the corner of the studio. He was an elderly person, with a miserable expression on his face and poor, torn clothes over his body. He was an amazing model, absolutely different from Alan’s other models!

Trevor told Hugh that he paid the model a shilling an hour. Hugh said that the pay was unfair because the painter would get at least a thousand pounds for the picture. Hugh was sure that the model should be paid more for standing all day long in the studio. But Alan only smiled back. When Trevor went out for a moment, Hugh gave the beggar the only sovereign he had in his pocket. The old man smiled mysteriously and thanked Hugh.

The next day Hugh met Alan Trevor in the club. Trevor confessed that the beggar was Baron Hausberg, the richest man in London, and Trevor’s great friend. He bought many of his pictures and that day he had asked to paint him in beggar’s clothes. Trevor also said that he had told Baron about Hugh’s love and money problems.

“And I gave him a sovereign!” Hugh cried out, red with shame. Trevor continued laughing loudly. He added that Baron Hausberg was in high spirits after Hugh had left and was rubbing his hands together. Nevertheless, Hugh was so unhappy that he asked Trevor not to tell the story to anyone else and left the club.

The next morning the servant brought Hugh a visiting card. The visitor, an old man in golden spectacles, was from Baron Hausberg. As he came into the room, Hugh expressed sincere apologies to the Baron. Instead the man handed Hugh an envelope. On the outside it was written, ‘A wedding present to Hugh Erskine and Laura Merton, from an old beggar’.

Hugh opened the envelope. Inside, there was a cheque for ten thousand pounds.

A Desperate Adventure

Captain Cowgill had always wanted to arrange a hot-air balloon expedition. One day, he placed an announcement in all the morning papers. He wrote that he needed three people who wanted to take a risky adventure. Ten people came to his office and Captain Cowgill selected three of them: two men and a young lady.

The first volunteer was Mr. Crutter, a well-dressed man of about sixty. He looked depressed and unhappy. The second one was a doctor, Dr. Hagan, a sad thin gentleman. The third adventurer, Miss Dermott, looked slim and miserable. They were ready to fly in the balloon in spite of the risks. Though Captain Cowgill hoped for success, there was a great chance that the participants wouldn’t come back.

The next day, the balloon was ready for the journey. They had some food and the gas equipment. It was supposed that the travellers would fly during the day and then land for the night. Right before the take-off, a young man ran up to Captain Cowgill and begged to let him join the expedition. Captain Cowgill listened to his arguments and let the young man, Mr. Winden, fly too.

With the last farewell to Captain Cowgill, the balloon went sailing towards the clouds. At first the travellers said nothing. An hour later they found the journey exciting. Two hours later they revealed their reasons for coming on the dangerous flight.

Mr. Crutter said that he had been cheated by his partners and had lost a large part of his business. Though he had enough money left, he felt extremely depressed. Dr. Hagan told the travellers that he had lost his job in a hospital. He felt lonely and unwanted. Miss Dermott said that she suffered from a serious disease and had no money for treatment. Mr. Winden had just split up with his girlfriend and was ready to die.

In the evening, the travellers decided to take a rest. They landed in a deserted place and tied the balloon to a tree. After supper they continued talking about their unhappy fates. Suddenly, Mr. Crutter offered to share his money with his new friends. Dr. Hagan smiled and looked at Miss Dermont. “I think I can cure you, Miss Dermott,” he said. “I have already had patients with the same diagnosis.” Miss Diamont smiled. But it wasn’t the last surprise. Mr. Winden proposed to Miss Diamont saying that he had fallen in love at first sight. She shyly promised to think it over.

The talk raised their spirits and, in the morning, everybody decided to go back home. Now when all their problems were happily solved, they didn’t want to go anywhere. Suddenly Miss Dermott cried out pointing to a distant object in the sky. It was their balloon that had broken loose while they were having breakfast. Nobody felt upset!

The group decided to walk to the nearest railway station. Mr. Crutter bought tickets for his new friends and they sent Captain Cowgill a telegram. It said that the balloon had flown away accidentally, their expedition had failed and they would arrive in town the next day.

The Open Window

Mr. Nuttel, a young gentleman, came to live in the country. The doctors said a quiet place like that and complete rest could help cure his nerves. He didn’t know anyone round there and was too shy to make new acquaintances. That’s why his sister gave him letters of introduction to some nice people she knew.

One of the letters was to Mrs. Sappleton. When Mr. Nuttel visited her, Mrs Sappleton was busy and he was asked to wait for several minutes. The servant invited Mr. Nuttel into a room. There Mr. Nuttel met Mrs. Sappleton’s niece, a very self-confident young lady of fifteen. The young gentleman was very shy and he didn’t know how to start the conversation. The young lady broke the silence and asked him what he knew about her aunt. Mr. Nuttel knew nothing except Mrs. Sappleton’s name and address.

Mr. Nuttel looked around. There was something about the room that told him there were other people living in the house. So he was wondering if Mrs. Sappleton was married. Suddenly the girl got sad and told a story of Mrs. Sappleton’s tragedy. Mr. Nuttel was greatly surprised because his sister hadn’t told him anything about it. The tragedy was very unusual for that peaceful place.

The girl pointed at the French window, which opened on to the lawn and said that Mrs. Sappleton always kept it open. Mr. Nuttel stated that it was natural to keep the window open because the weather was quite warm. But the girl sighed and explained that her poor aunt always kept the window open in the evenings because she was waiting for her husband and sons to return. Three years ago they had gone hunting and never came back. The story caught Mr. Nuttel’s imagination deeply. He felt very upset.

He felt a little better only when Mrs. Sappleton finally appeared in the room. She apologized for being late and asked if he minded the open window. She said her husband and sons would soon be home from hunting. They always came in that way. Then, she continued talking cheerfully about hunting ducks. But Mr. Nuttel felt terrible.

He made an attempt to change the topic and told her about the reasons why he had come to the country. But Mrs. Sappleton didn’t seem to notice. She was constantly looking at the open window. Mr. Nuttel felt uncomfortable. He understood that he had chosen the wrong moment to visit her. Suddenly Mrs. Sappleton cried happily pointing at the window, “Here they are at last, just in time for tea!” Three male figures were walking across the lawn towards the window. They carried guns and a dog followed them.

Shocked and afraid, Mr. Nuttel grabbed his stick and hat and rushed out of the house. Mrs. Sappleton was extremely surprised at the extraordinary man who had left the house so quickly without a word. Her niece suggested that it was because of the dog. She said that Mr. Nuttel had been afraid of them since childhood – once, a dog had seriously bitten him. This was enough to make the young man lose his nerve. The young lady was so good at making up stories!

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