this time, quite a small crowd had collected, and people were asking each other what was the matter. One party (the young and silly portion of the crowd) held that it was a wedding, and pointed out Harris as the bridegroom; while the elder and more thoughtful inclined to the idea that it was a funeral, and that I was probably the corpse’s brother.
At last, an empty cab turned up (it is a street where, as a rule, and when they are not wanted, empty cabs pass at the rate of three a minute, and hang about, and get in your way), and packing ourselves and our belongings into it, and keeping out a couple of Montmorency’s friends, who had evidently sworn never to leave him, we drove away surrounded by the cheering crowd. Biggs’s boy threw a carrot after us for luck.
We got to Waterloo at eleven, and asked where the eleven-five train started from. Of course nobody knew; nobody at Waterloo ever knows where a train is going to start from, or where a train is going to, or anything about it. The porter who took our things thought it would go from number two platform, while another porter, with whom he discussed the question, had heard a rumour that it would go from number one. The station-master, on the other hand76, was convinced it would start from the local platform.
To put an end to the matter77, we went upstairs, and asked the traffic superintendent, and he told us that he had just met a man, who said he had seen it at number three platform. We went to number three platform, but the authorities there said that they thought that train was the Southampton express, or else the Windsor loop. But they were sure it wasn’t the Kingston train, though why they were sure they couldn’t say.
Then our porter said he thought that it must be on the high-level platform; said he thought he knew the train. So we went to the high-level platform, and saw the engine-driver78, and asked him if he was going to Kingston. He said he couldn’t say for certain of course, but that he rather thought he was. Anyhow, if he wasn’t the 11.05 for Kingston, he said he was pretty confident he was the 9.32 for Virginia Water, or the 10 a.m. express for the Isle of Wight, or somewhere in that direction, and we should all know when we got there. We slipped half-a-crown into his hand, and begged him to be the 11.05 for Kingston.
“Nobody will ever know, on this line,” we said, “what you are, or where you’re going. You know the way, you slip off79 quietly and go to Kingston.”
“Well, I don’t know, gentlemen,” replied the noble fellow, “but I suppose some train has to go to Kingston; and I’ll do it. Give me the half-crown.”
Thus we got to Kingston by the London and South-Western Railway. We learnt, afterwards, that the train we had come by was really the Exeter mail, and that they had spent hours at Waterloo, looking for it, and nobody knew what had become of it.
Our boat was waiting for us at Kingston just below bridge, and we went to it, and we stored our luggage round it, and we stepped into it.
“Are you all right, sir?” said the man.
“Right it is,” we answered; and with Harris at the sculls and I at the tiller-lines, and Montmorency, unhappy and deeply suspicious, in the prow80, we started our travel on to the waters which, for a fortnight, were to be our home.
1. Read the chapter and mark the sentences T (true), F (false) or NI (no information).
1. The narrator was going to get up at 9 o’clock.
2. George was still sleeping when his friends woke up.
3. Montmorency ate chops and cold beef for breakfast.
4. The narrator considers weather forecasts to be very useful.
5. The narrator had a good time staying in a hotel in Oxford.
6. We usually prefer people who prophesy good weather, even if their words don’t prove correct.
7. The friends gathered quite a small crowd to help them with the luggage.
8. There wasn’t any timetable at Waterloo station.
9. The friends had to pay an engine-driver to get to Kingston.
10. George was deeply suspicious at the beginning of the sea trip.
2. Learn the words from the text:
fortnight, interrupt, waste, instead of, weather forecast, occasional, beforehand, meanwhile, wonder, pay attention to, circumstance, afterwards, rumour, on the contrary, beg, convinced, suspicious, prove, grocer, starve.
3. Practice the pronunciation of the following words.
4. Fill in the gaps using the words from the text.
1. It … Mrs. Poppets … woke me up next morning.
2. If I … … you, you’d … lain there for the whole fortnight.
3. He … have been up … himself with eggs and bacon or … the dog instead … sprawling there.
4. We told him that he … have … go without shaving that morning, as we … going to unpack that bag again for him.
5. Montmorency … … two other dogs to come and see him, and they … whiling away the time by … on the doorstep.
6. And so, finding that he … not disappoint us, and … only … his time, he … the cigarette that I … carefully rolled up for …, and … .
7. There … a melon by itself in a bag, because it was … bulky … go in anywhere.
8. … this time, quite a small crowd … collected, and people … asking each … what … the matter.
9. The porter … took our things thought it … go from number two platform, while another porter … heard a rumour that it … … from number one.
10. We learnt … the train we … come by was really the Exeter mail, and that they had … hours at Waterloo, looking … it, and nobody … what … become of it.
5. Match the words with definitions.
6. Find in the text the English equivalents for:
прогноз погоды, мне интересно (почему…), вместо того (чтобы), поздняя осень, обращать внимание на, местная газета, оставаться дома, тратить драгоценное время, сказать наверняка, проспать, знать заранее, злиться на кого-то.
7. Find the words in the text for which the following are synonyms:
respond, foretell, annoying, soaked, obtain, apparently, ordinary, decide, cry,
on the other hand – с другой стороны
to put an end to smth – положить конец чему-либо
engine-driver – машинист
to slip off – ускользнуть
Harris at the sculls and I at the tiller-lines, and Montmorency, unhappy and deeply suspicious, in the prow – Харрис на веслах, я у руля, и несчастный, полный подозрений Монморанси на носу лодки
