Chapter 15 15.Anthony walks to school

It's time for Anthony to go to Bath to study grammar.He used to walk there in the morning, eat his lunch there, and in the afternoon his mother would fetch him in a buggy, and if it got cold, would bring him a coat.In winter, when it was very cold, he put on his coat in the morning, and in the evening she brought him another coat.In this way, he wears one overcoat when he goes to school, and two overcoats when he comes back.Later, when he got older, his mother didn't always come to pick him up, and he had to walk home by himself after school.Sometimes he walked all the way back, and sometimes he met a two-wheeled carriage that came to pick him up halfway.

For a child in the city, it is a long, long way, but for a child in the country, he is used to walking long distances.Anthony rarely felt tedious walking this distance, unless he was already physically tired.The path was familiar to him, but there was always something new along the way, something to look for in the hedges, bird nests, blackberries, or that special snail he liked to collect.After the hedge walk there were always certain houses, shops, and cottages that held special meaning to him.There was a house not as old as his own, with a handsome verandah, and a foreign tree in the neat front garden.For a while it seemed to Anthony that it was the most desirable abode in the world.There are reeds there, and there is a pool in the rockery, and a brushed concrete bridge on the pool.And the tree that had been taken extra care to grow as good as the English tree, he knew all too well that that strange tree came from nowhere, maybe the Indian jungle, or the Amazon forest, or the Pacific Ocean. of an island.What lion has not roared beneath it?What bird of bright plumage has not roosted in its foliage?As Anthony passed the dream house, he always thought he saw a tiger with stripes and white belly crawling secretly on the ground, and a boa constrictor inlaid with jewels was coiled on the trunk of the tree, and he could still see it among the leaves. Hummingbirds and flamingos.

There was another cabin, with a low lean-to roof, and just under that roof, were two little holes, like pigeon holes.He had never seen a pigeon go in and out of either hole, but he always expected to see one every time he passed by.Maybe one day he will be able to... Then there was a shop with windows full of all sorts of second-hand stuff, among them a bull's-eye lamp, a real bull's-eye lamp big enough for the police to catch burglars.All Anthony wanted was the bull's-eye lamp.What life would he not have once he had that lamp?What kind of things would he not detect?What kind of person can he not protect?What he said in his mother's ear was the bull's-eye lamp!

Then there is the pastry shop, where he can go once a day to pick up a small round fruit loaf without paying. It was when he started to go to school alone, and his mother ordered it from the pastry shop lady. A marvelous pact was that whenever Anthony got home later and was hungry, he might have a snack on the way.What a delightful feeling it is to walk into a shop full of pastries and sweets, and whether you have a penny in your pocket or not, and say, "Please give me a fruit loaf, Mrs. Bowden." what.Besides, the lady in the pastry shop let him choose anything at will, as if he was the owner of the pastry shop.To tell the truth, he stepped into that pastry shop really like the owner of that shop, he seemed to have grown up, and his appearance was more airy, he casually looked around, selected among "his" treasures, and decided to have what.Would he like a big lemon pie, the kind with the thickly fluted sides?He has been standing in front of the window of that store since the first day and saw a sample of a wedding cake, which is three-tiered and decorated with flowers on the top. It is so beautiful that it is indescribable, so is today the day he ordered such a cake? ?Of course, such a day will always come, that day he will choose that cake, but today, forget it, in short, today...

"Please give me a fruit loaf, Mrs. Bowton." Then came the house with the oval window. The house with the oval window was not in the city, nor in the village of the Anthonys, it was on a road between them.It stood there alone, separated from the road only by a railing.It was a square house, like a box, overgrown with thick vines, and in the middle of the roof, there was an oval window like the largest photo in Mama's photo album. That photo book was a source of joy for Anthony.He likes to flip through the photo album full of thick paper page by page. Some paper has four square openings for smaller photos, while others have only one oval opening for a large photo.Those important photographs are also decorated with flower-shaped designs around the oval.In that photo album, these photos have great meaning.When Anthony was a baby, his mother held him and made him happy, put the photo album on her lap, and told him the names of the people in the photos, who was grandpa, grandma, uncle, aunt, cousin, who was their old friends.Every now and then a person in the picture would show up and visit their home.However, there are always some differences between people in real life and people in photos.The mother in the photo album is a little girl, and the father is a primary school student.The aunt in the photo album was still a young woman in a fine woolen waistcoat from Paisley, Scotland; and Mr. Cantel, with whiskers, was well-dressed and looked a bit like a playboy.Anthony thought that if the photo was taken a little further down, he would definitely be able to capture the stockings he was wearing.Mr. Cantel sometimes stayed at the Anthonys' house, and he always wore pure silk stockings, and like a girl, he always showed his knees on purpose.You couldn't help noticing those socks, and Kantel had a habit of lifting his pant legs to show off his socks, but Anthony really liked his socks, too.

One day he heard his father and mother talking about Mr. Cantel and his socks, and his mother said she had never seen such socks. "I can't think where he got it," she said at last. "Where the hell did Mr. Cantel get his socks, Dad?" Anthony asked. His father tugged at his ear and replied: "He specially raises a kind of silkworm in the south of France, and uses them to produce this kind of socks." Every time Anthony flipped through the photo album, the statement added color to Mr. Kantel's photographs. There is also an old Mr. Tresdale in the photo album. He is a great scholar at Oxford University. He can memorize Dante's "Divine Comedy" backwards.He has been to India.He wore a formal dress wherever he dined, even for an evening at the Anthonys', though the Anthonys seldom ate so well.Anthony's dad said it was a lifelong habit that would never be broken under any circumstances.

"Has he been doing that all his life, Dad?" Anthony's dad says it's been like this since he was a year old.At that time, he was wearing a small suit when he took his last bottle of milk before going to bed. "And what if he forgets, papa?" Anthony's father thought that if there was such a day, the sky would fall.And he added that when the sky fell, old Mr. Tresdale would see to it being restored at once.For this formal, sharp-tongued, authoritative old scholar, with his autocratic style, grandiose ideas, and all his learning, did not intend to be a dreamer, but to be a great man in the actual events of life. control home.Not a single detail could be missed, not a single mistake could slip uncorrected under his observation.If he happens to notice some slack in the service of a certain hotel manager, he is quite sure that, after old Mr. Tresdale's inquiry, this particular hotel will always be perfect in this particular respect. up.When he denounced, he always said to his companions on such occasions: "You see, my dear boy, you will always make the world a little better than you see it."

Anthony could not help admiring the great old scholar, but as he sat very quietly on his stool listening to the conversation between his father and old Mr. Tresdale, he always wished that they would talk no more but Ding, and began to talk about India.Because old Mr. Tresdale once climbed Mount Everest with a coolie.Anthony at first thought the coolie was a dog until he figured out what it was.Ever since old Mr. Tresdale had visited his home, whenever he looked at his photographs in his photo album, he could not help but think of him standing on Mount Everest, with a dark little boy standing beside him, holding a With a basket containing the gentleman's suit.When it was time to eat, old Mr. Tresdale, of course, went behind a rock to change his clothes, lest the sky should fall.Anthony shared this opinion with his father, who immediately agreed with him.

"If old Mr. Tresdale wears dresses to us, he will be more courteous to Shiva, the Hindu god." Anthony felt that Shiva must be the master of Mount Everest. "And does he wear a dress too, Dad?" "If he doesn't," said Anthony's father, "think about it, can old Mr. Tresdale let him go? When Shiva comes back in a white shirt and a broadcloth, he'll still take pictures." Pat him on the shoulder and say: 'You see, my dear boy, you will always make the world a little better than you see it.'" But most of the people in the photos were never seen by Anthony.The photobook seemed to be the houses of these people, and in their houses there were their rooms and their windows—square windows in small rooms, oval windows in large rooms.

So when Anthony passed the house with the oval window on his way home from school, he always looked up to see if there was a face—he didn't know what it was, maybe An old relative, an old friend, and maybe some new and dearest friend would peep out of that window framed in vines and flowers. But there is always no one in sight at that window.Maybe someday...