The Wide, Wide World

Автор

Susan Warner

Жанр

Зарубежная классика

Год написания книги

2017

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"Handsome or ugly?"

"History don't say."

"Well, what does it say?" said George; "what did he do?"

"He took a journey once upon a time."

"What for?"

"Do you mean why he went, or what was the object of his going?"

"Why, the one's the same as the other, ain't it?"

"I beg your pardon."

"Well, what was the object of his going?"

"He went after a wife."

"Samson! Samson!" shouted William and Isabel and Ellen Chauncey.

"No, it wasn't Samson either."

"I can't think of anybody else that went after a wife," said George. "That king – what's his name? – that married Esther?"

The children screamed. "He didn't go after a wife, George; his wives were brought to him. Was it Jacob?"

"No, he didn't go after a wife either," said Gilbert; "he married two of them, but he didn't go to his uncle's to find them. You had better go on with your questions. You have had eight already. If you don't look out you won't catch me. Come!"

"Did he get the wife that he went after?" asked Ellen Chauncey.

"He was never married that I know of," said Gilbert.

"What was the reason he failed?" said Isabel.

"He did not fail."

"Did he bring home his wife, then? You said he wasn't married."

"He never was that I know of; but he brought home a wife notwithstanding."

"But how funny you are, Gilbert," said little Ellen. "He had a wife and he hadn't a wife; what became of her?"

"She lived and flourished. Twelve questions; take care."

"Nobody asked what country he was of," said Margaret; "what was he, Gilbert?"

"He was a Damascene."

"A what?"

"Of Damascus – of Damascus. You know where Damascus is, don't you?"

"Fiddle!" said Marianne; "I thought he was a Jew. Did he live before or after the Flood?"

"After. I should think you might have known that."

"Well, I can't make out anything about him," said Marianne. "We shall have to give it up."

"No, no, not yet," said William. "Where did he go after his wife?"

"Too close a question."

"Then that don't count. Had he ever seen her before?"

"Never."

"Was she willing to go with him?"

"Very willing. Ladies always are when they go to be married."

"And what became of her?"

"She was married and lived happily, as I told you."

"But you said he wasn't married."

"Well, what then? I didn't say she married him."

"Whom did she marry?"

"Ah, that is asking the whole; I can't tell you."

"Had they far to go?" asked Isabel.

"Several days' journey; I don't know how far."

"How did they travel?"

"On camels."

"Was it the Queen of Sheba?" said little Ellen.

There was a roar of laughter at this happy thought, and poor little Ellen declared she forgot all but about the journey; she remembered the Queen of Sheba had taken a journey, and the camels in the picture of the Queen of Sheba, and that made her think of her.

The children gave up. Questioning seemed hopeless; and Gilbert at last told them his thought. It was Eleazar, Abraham's steward, whom he sent to fetch a wife for his son Isaac.

"Why haven't you guessed, little mumchance?" said Gilbert to Ellen Montgomery.